Tech glitches, staff crunch hit booth-level electoral mapping

Hyderabad: Booth-level officers (BLOs), each responsible for nearly 1,200 electors, are facing mounting operational challenges that are affecting the quality of booth-level mapping.Field observations point to repeated app failures, uneven training, and gaps in house-to-house verification, raising concerns over the accuracy of the ongoing pre-SIR mapping. The Election Commission of India had rolled out a dedicated mobile application with secure login to help BLOs carry out pre-SIR mapping under prescribed guidelines.
However, in several cases, the process is being disrupted as many smartphones used by BLOs are incompatible with the app. Officers report crashes, glitches, and instances where the application fails to launch altogether. With BLOs already burdened by parallel duties and tight deadlines, such technical disruptions are leading to incomplete verification in some cases. This, in turn, affects family-link checks and the tracking of historical electoral records. Technical know-howAIMIM joint secretary SA Hussain Anwar alleged that BLOs are not receiving adequate training to operate the app, particularly for progeny mapping. "BLOs from rural backgrounds experience even more difficulty due to a lack of technical know-how, coupled with poor connectivity in those areas," he alleged.In several instances, the app either does not open or becomes unstable during use. As a result, even routine verification steps rely on workarounds, increasing the risk of missed family linkages and mapping mismatches. AIMIM cited Supreme Court directions in the West Bengal and Tamil Nadu SIRs, stating that the court directed the ECI to deploy additional personnel to assist BLOs in handling documents, objections, and hearings for those likely to be affected. AIMIM alleged that the one BLO to 1,200 electors ratio did not yield satisfactory results and that this prompted the Supreme Court to ask govt employees to assist in the SIR process. The party also proposed a citizen-access model for the mapping platform. "By allowing electors to access the mapping platform to confirm or update their residential coordinates, the commission can drastically improve the accuracy and completeness of the electoral geography," it said.