Pics: Spoorthi Ullal

Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Jun 5: As part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being undertaken by the Election Commission, booth-level officers (BLOs) will conduct a door-to-door verification drive across Dakshina Kannada (DK) district from June 30, deputy commissioner (DC) Darshan H V said.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, he said training programmes, preparatory work and printing of forms will be carried out from June 20 to 29. The door-to-door visit by booth-level officers will be conducted from June 30 to July 29. The draft electoral roll will be published on August 5, while claims and objections can be submitted from August 5 to September 4. The final electoral roll will be published on October 7.

The DC said booth-level officers will visit voters’ homes and provide enumeration forms in duplicate. Voters must retain one copy bearing the BLO’s signature for their records and fill in the required details in the second copy before handing it back to the officer.

He said the forms will already contain details such as the voter’s name, polling station number and Assembly constituency as recorded in the electoral roll. Voters whose photographs in the electoral roll are outdated may submit a recent photograph along with the form. To assist voters in filling up the forms using details available in the 2002 electoral roll, Voter Facilitation Centres have been established at every polling station.

The DC said all recognised political parties have been instructed to appoint booth-level agents for every polling station to ensure active participation and transparency in the revision process. The primary objective of the Special Intensive Revision is to ensure that no eligible voter is left out of the electoral roll and that no ineligible voter is included. He appealed to all voters to cooperate with the exercise.

Additional deputy commissioner K Raju was also present at the press conference.

The district has a total of 18,05,189 voters. Of these, 15,98,723 voters have already provided details from the 2002 electoral roll to booth-level officers for mapping. So far, 88.56 per cent of the mapping process has been completed, while the mapping of 2,06,466 voters is still pending.

The constituency-wise pending figures are 9,637 in Beltangady, 20,128 in Moodbidri, 50,558 in Mangaluru City North, 63,853 in Mangaluru City South, 25,042 in Mangaluru, 14,430 in Bantwal, 15,802 in Puttur and 7,016 in Sullia.

The DC said eligible voters who have not yet been covered under the mapping process should submit the necessary documents to the booth-level officers. Information regarding the pending mapping exercise has also been shared with booth agents of political parties. Voters can verify whether their mapping has been completed through the booth-level officers, he added.