A Booth Level Officer (BLO) helps residents fill out electoral forms during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls ahead of the Assam Assembly elections 2025, in Guwahati.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Amid questions raised by the Opposition over the "tight timelines" triggering problems for people and ground-level poll officials, the Election Commission on Sunday announced extending the schedule of the ongoing second phase of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by a week.
With the extension, the draft rolls will now be published on December 16 instead of December 9 and the final rolls on February 14 instead of February 7. The SIR is underway in 12 states and union territories, including poll-bound Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry.
The house-to-house enumeration phase, which was to end on December 4, has now been extended to December 11, giving time for the BLOs to finish their task and allow voters to submit enumeration forms after matching it with previous SIR rolls. Some sections had complained that finding their names in the previous SIR list was cumbersome.
The deadline for rationalisation and re-arrangement of polling stations has also been extended to December 11 as also the timeline for filing claims and objections have been simultaneously shifted by one week.
The EC took the decision to extend the timeline following internal discussions with Chief Electoral Officers in 12 states and union territories. Booth Level Officers had earlier complained about the timeline of the SIR and they were rushing to meet the deadline.
The poll body has faced flak following deaths and alleged suicides by Booth Level Officers in various states, amid claims that work pressure had led to such incidents. Trinamool Congress had accused the EC of having "blood on their hands" for the deaths, which were caused due to "stress of meeting tight deadlines".
The decision to tweak the schedule comes ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament beginning Monday with Opposition parties making it clear that they will insist on a debate on SIR.
Congress Rajya Sabha Deputy Leader Pramod Tiwari claimed that the extension of timeline was an indication that the EC knew the timelines were not "practical". Tiwari said the Election Commission should shed ego and hold the exercise as per the 2003 schedule when SIR was held last.