Hyderabad: As the pre-SIR voter mapping exercise draws to a close this week, questions are being raised about the competence of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in completing the task efficiently. Critics point to the complete dependence on contract and outsourced staff — including school dropouts — even for the upcoming special intensive revision (SIR) of voter rolls beginning June 25.
Nearly 36,000 BLOs will undergo training from June 15 to 24 before house-to-house enumeration begins. Observers say sweepers, sanitation field assistants, garbage collectors and fogging staff were deployed for pre-SIR mapping within GHMC limits. “A female sweeper unable to handle a smartphone was made a BLO in Nampally, similar to a case in Chandrayangutta that went viral. A male sanitation worker at Niloufer hospital was also struggling. How does the Election Commission conduct SIR with such people?” asked AIMIM volunteer Imran Hashmi from Tolichowki.
Congress leaders recently complained to CEO C Sudharshan Reddy that BLOs in some areas were not well educated and struggled with English. “The BLO who mapped me works in fogging and has studied only till Class 7. Since the process was mostly on smartphones, they relied on help from children or spouses,” said PCC Election Commission Coordination Committee chairman Rajesh Kumar Pulipati.
Earlier concerns included voter deletions, rejection of Forms 6 and 8, wrongful mapping and glitches in the ECI app. Activists M A Mujeeb Ayyub and S.Q. Masood highlighted these issues to the CEO. Masood warned that BLOs were being tasked with verifying citizenship status of some of the most vulnerable people. “A broken and politically motivated system, dependent on temporary BLOs with zero accountability,” he said.
There are 35,985 BLOs, 3,596 supervisors, 867 AEROs, 119 EROs under 33 DEOs. With June 10 likely to be the last day for voter mapping, training of the entire election machinery at district, constituency and polling station levels is being hastened. “Before the SIR begins, officials at all levels will be properly trained to ensure everything goes well,” an official said.
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