The list of electors issued notices over anomalies, or logical discrepancies, identified during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise has been uploaded on the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer’s website. However, details for several polling booths are yet to be made available.

To access the list, electors have to visit the website and click on the “List of Persons to Whom Notices Have Been Issued” button. They then need to select their district and Assembly constituency from the drop-down menus and click on “Get Polling Stations”. After selecting the relevant polling station, they have to click on “View” in the third column and enter the verification code displayed in the pop-up window.

The list then displays the names of electors who have been issued notices, along with their EPIC numbers, age, gender and the “reason for the discrepancy”. However, in some cases, electors said the reason for the notice was not displayed.

“I searched for my name but did not find the reason for the notice listed,” Anam Fatima (name changed), an elector, who works as an educationalist, said. “But, incidentally, on the very same day, the Booth Level Officer came and handed me the notice. There was an issue with the spelling,” she said.

Activists and researchers analysing the data said while notice lists for most constituencies had been uploaded, details relating to certain polling booths were still missing.

The ceotelangana.nic.in website is yet to upload notice lists of several booths in the Charminar assembly constituency
| Video Credit:
Syed Mohammed

The SABAR Institute, which has been analysing SIR data from several States, pointed out that details for several polling booths in the Charminar Assembly constituency were not available. A similar gap was found in a couple of booths in the Yakutpura constituency.

“While uploading the data may take some time, it is important to have the complete data in the interest of transparency. The future of several electors is at stake,” SABAR Institute lead researcher Sabir Ahamed told The Hindu.

Booth Level Agents also flagged the issue, claiming that notice lists for more than 50 booths in the Charminar Assembly constituency were yet to be updated.

Even as several electors say they are still waiting to receive enumeration forms and visits by Booth Level Officers (BLOs), fellow residents in the same localities have taken the initiative to contact BLOs directly and coordinate visits.

“There is no point waiting for the BLO. It is better to get the BLO’s contact details from the CEO website and ask when they are likely to visit. We did this for our family. The BLO was in the next lane, so I met him and coordinated. He came the next day and distributed the forms,” said Abdul Qader, a resident of Jubilee Hills in the Khairatabad Assembly constituency.

Mr. Qader, who works in the IT sector, said his family WhatsApp group has been flooded with queries, updates and advisories on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, with relatives across constituencies making efforts to contact their respective BLOs.

A similar approach has been adopted in other parts of the Khairatabad constituency, where activists, Booth Level Agents and residents have been sharing BLO contact details to facilitate the distribution of forms.

“There are around 40 electors in 10 houses here, so it made sense for the forms to be distributed in one visit. One of us contacted the BLO and ensured he visited every house,” said Ahmed Imam, a resident of Banjara Hills. “Now that we have interacted with the BLO, it will also be easier to reach out to him if we have any doubts.”

However, residents familiar with the exercise said the overall pace of form distribution remains slow. “The situation is actually better in bastis than in many colonies. BLOs are yet to visit several areas. Many are inadequately trained and not proactive enough. There needs to be continuous monitoring, even by residents, to ensure they visit on time and assist electors, many of whom are still unaware of the process,” said Asif Hussain Sohail, an office-bearer of a residents’ collective in the Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency.

Recently, Majlis Bachao Tehreek spokesperson Amjed Ullah Khan had stressed that BLOs must visit every elector’s home, as required under the rules, and remain accessible to the public without coming under political influence.

Meanwhile, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Vasam Venkateswara Reddy and Electoral Registration Officers inspected polling stations in the Karwan and Charminar Assembly constituencies. During the visit, Mr. Reddy directed BLOs to visit every household, distribute enumeration forms and assist voters in filling them.