Malayalam-only voter rolls leave BLOs in DK struggling to map Kerala migrants

Mangaluru: With election authorities carrying out voter roll mapping under special intensive revision (SIR), booth-level officers (BLOs) in Dakshina Kannada have hit a language barrier, especially with voters who moved from Kerala.

BLOs must verify the 2002 voter list to confirm a voter's name, constituency number, part number, and serial number, and then match it with the current constituency's roll. However, Kerala's 2002 voter list on the state portal is available only in Malayalam. As a result, BLOs returned to voters, asking them to visit their native place and obtain the required details.

A BLO from Mangaluru constituency said officials helped voters retrieve details from the 2002 list if they were registered in Karnataka. "There are a large number of voters in the constituency who have their names in the 2002 voter list of Kerala. Since their voter list contains details in Malayalam, we are unable to complete the mapping process. Whereas, we helped voters of Karnataka to fetch details of the 2002 voter list, which is in Kannada," the officer said.

Officials said Karnataka is using the 2002 voter list as the base reference to clean and update the electoral rolls. Voters who were in Kerala in 2002 now demand a voter-friendly system to access details online so their names would not be deleted after the SIR process.

KS Dayanand, tahsildar (election), said officials have discussed issues faced by Kerala voters who shifted to Dakshina Kannada. He said BLOs had already raised concerns about being unable to read the Kerala list, which slowed the process. He added that discussions are under way to resolve the issue, which has been brought to the State Election Commission's notice.