SIR: 2.4L ‘unmapped’ voters in Ghaziabad, Noida issued notices

Noida/Ghaziabad: As hearings continue under the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, election authorities so far issued notices to around 2.4 lakh unmapped voters across Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar, even as new voter enrolment shows a sharp contrast between the two districts.In Ghaziabad, officials said at least 80,000 notices were served out of 1.5 lakh unmapped voters identified during the exercise. Officials said that of the over 1.7 lakh unmapped voters identified in Gautam Budh Nagar, at least 1.6 lakh were issued notices, taking the combined total of notices served in both districts to over 2 lakh.
The hearings that began on Jan 21 are ongoing. Twenty-one hearing centres were set up in Ghaziabad and 35 in Gautam Budh Nagar, where additional electoral registration officers (AEROs) are conducting hearings and verifying documents. Officials said hearings at all centres are being conducted to ensure that cases of unmapped voters are disposed of before the Feb 27 deadline.Officials said hearings before AEROs are being conducted on a daily basis. As per the latest Uttar Pradesh Election Commission guidelines, an unmapped voter who is unable to attend the hearing in person can send a representative with the required documents to be shown to the AERO."In line with the commission's objective of ‘no voter left behind' and to make the revision process simple, accessible and inclusive and to minimise inconvenience to voters, those voters who are unable to appear in person for the hearing may be exempted from personal appearance before the electoral registration officers (EROs/(AEROs). Such voters must authorise a person in writing, by signature or thumb impression, to represent them at the hearing," the guidelines say.Meanwhile, some unmapped voters also raised concerns regarding attendance for the hearing if they submitted the documents online. "I checked the ECI website and saw that I was served a notice. I went ahead with the option of uploading my documents on the website, following which I was provided with a reference number to be shown to election officials in the future. However, the message did not state whether I still need to attend the hearing," said a resident of Omicron-1 in Greater Noida.When asked, officials clarified that while voters can view their notices online on the Election Commission of India portal and upload documents, online submission alone is not sufficient and attendance at the hearing, either personally or through a representative, remains mandatory.Meanwhile, Ghaziabad district saw a steady flow of new voter applications. With around 1.5 lakh new voter applications in process, over 50,000 were received during two-day enrolment camps held on Sunday and Monday. In total, nearly 2 lakh new voter applications are currently under process in the district."We are holding intensive outreach programmes and have instructed BLOs to check the houses of the shifted voters, where new people may be staying now and get them to enrol by submitting Form 6 with declarations. Apart from this, we also provided Form 6 to ration shops across the district and asked the ration shop operator to ask customers whether they are registered voters or not, and if not, then provide them with the form so they can apply as new voters," said Saurabh Bhatt, additional district magistrate and election officer, Ghaziabad.In contrast, Gautam Budh Nagar recorded comparatively lower enrolment during the same period. Since Jan 6, when the draft rolls were published, only around 14,000 new voter applications were received. Earlier, about 32,000 forms were submitted between Nov and early Jan. Overall, around 46,000 voter applications are under process in the district.When asked, officials said that the procedure remains under process.