At the Delhi Technological University (DTU)’s east Delhi campus on Sunday afternoon, 48-year-old Ram Dev Prasad sat with a bundle of documents, waiting his turn at a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) camp. His name had been dropped from the electoral rolls after a Booth Level Officer (BLO) visited his brother’s address — the address on all his documents.
In Ambedkar Camp, an authorised colony with a predominantly migrant-worker population, around 431 notices were issued in the area, officials said. Munesh Kumar, 36, a government schoolteacher and BLO, said many residents were migrant workers, mostly men whose families lived in villages in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Bhupendra, 26, who moved from Pillanji Village to neighbouring Laxmibai Nagar, said repeated unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue online had left him with no option but to visit a camp. His name had been deleted over an address-related issue, and his online application through Form 6 was rejected. A BLO at the camp, requesting anonymity, said nearly 95% of Pillanji Village’s population comprised tenants who frequently changed addresses. “We initially had around 200 notices, most of them concerning people who had lived here as tenants and subsequently moved. Inclusion applications near 450,000 According to the Delhi chief electoral officer’s October 18 bulletin, 235,351 Form 6 applications seeking inclusion in electoral rolls were received between August 31 and October 17, taking the cumulative total to 447,751. During the same period, authorities received 13,773 Form 7 applications seeking deletion of names and 89,577 Form 8 applications for corrections.
“All my documents have my brother’s address on them, however, due to a rift in the family we don’t live together. Because officials could not verify their addresses, on Sunday, HT visited three camps – two in east Delhi and one in south Delhi – where hundreds of people described difficulties ranging from rejected online applications to names being deleted.
So, when the BLO visited his house, my elder brother simply said that I don’t reside there. That’s how my name was dropped from the rolls,” said Prasad. They were often away at work when verification visits took place, while their families could not be approached, he said. When we contacted the landlords, they told us that these voters no longer lived at the given addresses.
Prasad is among the 4.7 million people whose names were removed from the draft rolls and are now lining up at camps on two back-to-back Sundays (October 18 and 25) to help eligible voters check their names in the draft electoral roll and submit claims or objections before the October 30 deadline. around 30 people visited the camp in Pillanji Village, Sarojini Nagar, over two hours While the east Delhi camps saw relatively low turnout.
“I am in school between 12.30pm to 6.30pm so managing the SIR work before and after that is challenging,” Kumar added.
Special camps will be held again at all polling station locations on October 25. Eligible citizens whose names are missing from the draft electoral roll can apply for inclusion by submitting Form 6, along with the prescribed declaration and supporting documents.
