Only 1,238 of the 4.5 lakh Form 6 applications seeking inclusion in Delhi’s electoral roll have been disposed of in 42 days, data accessed by The Hindu show.
With Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls underway in the city, eligible citizens left out of the draft roll, published on August 31, are required to fill Form 6, meant for new voters, in the ongoing claims and objections period to seek inclusion in the final roll.
Last week, Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) issued fresh directions instructing Electoral Registration Officers to reverify the 47.5 lakh names, through door-to-door visits by booth-level officers (BLOs), removed from the draft roll under the ‘Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate’ (ASDD) categories. Only 10 days remain to file forms for inclusion.
However, not even 1% of the Form 6 applications received so far have been processed, delaying inclusion. These disposals include both accepted and rejected applications, shows the weekly constituency-wise form disposal report from August 31 to October 11.
The deadline to dispose of all claims and objections is November 30, and the delay has raised concerns among citizens seeking re-inclusion. People whose applications have been pending for over a month said they will lose the chance to reapply if their application is rejected due to errors after October 30, the last date for filing applications for inclusion in the final roll set to be published on December 4.
Of the 4.5 lakh applications for inclusion, about 2.39 lakh were filed by those seeking re-inclusion or applying for the first time after the draft roll was published, according to the Delhi CEO’s daily bulletin of claims and objections received till October 18. This is only a fraction of the 47.5 lakh names deleted at the draft stage. The remaining 2.12 lakh applications were received even before the draft roll was published, between June and August.
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No disposal in 15 constituencies
The same report on form disposal shows that in 15 of the 70 constituencies, no Form 6 has been disposed. This includes Burari, where 1.67 lakh names were deleted, the highest in Delhi in absolute numbers. In the entire north district, where over 36,000 applications have been received, only 27 forms have been disposed of.
Officials attributed the delay to BLOs being engaged with disposal of notice cases.
The same report shows that the disposal of applications objecting to the inclusion of names or requesting deletions of existing names in the roll through Form 7 is five times higher than that of Form 6. Over 5,800 Form 7s have been disposed of during the same period. This is even as BLOs must conduct field verification for both applications for inclusion and objections, with the latter also including a 15-day notice period.
For Form 6 applications, a BLO is assigned to conduct physical verification and submit a report, based on which a decision is taken.
‘Rejected twice’
Shagufta, 35, said that for a month now she has been making rounds of the voter centre in Okhla constituency to get herself and her daughter, who turned 19 this year, enrolled. Ms. Shagufta was removed from Delhi’s roll even before the SIR began. “I submitted online application Form 6 twice for both of us, and it was rejected. No BLO contacted us and the number we got never picks up.”
Even after she visited the voter centre, the reason for the rejection remained unclear. “Now I want to submit the offline form, but voter centre is still asking me to fill it online,” she said.
Aman Singh, 42, who was left out of the roll after shifting to a new address in the same area, has been waiting for further action on his Form 6 for the past month. He opened the ECINET app on his phone to show that he submitted his form on September 18, and a BLO was assigned on September 20, but there has been no progress since.
“It has been a month. The SMS I received with the BLO’s contact number is unreachable at all times.”
The name of the assigned BLO was not mentioned in the BLO list for that area, The Hindu verified.
Now, Mr. Singh is anxious as the deadline is nearing. “If I fill in another form, then it will be duplication,” he said.
With the filing of claims and objections ending on October 30, voters left out can re-enter the electoral rolls only by submitting a filled Form 6 along with a new declaration that seeks details of the previous SIR. In parts of Delhi, confusion has persisted over a new declaration, with BLOs telling citizens that filing previous SIR details is mandatory.