Voters who provided their 2002 SIR details remain unmapped in Telangana, owing to glitchy software

A large number of electors in Telangana, who have been diligent enough to fill the enumeration forms with all the details required are literally on the receiving end now during the notice period of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Rolls.

An investigation into the issue leads to the glitches in the software developed and maintained by the Election Commission of India.

Numerous notices served from the offices of the Electoral Registration Officers categorising electors as ‘unmapped’, pertain actually to the voters who had observed due diligence and filled in their details from the previous SIR on the forms. They have all been asked to present themselves before the EROs with relevant documents.

“We had spent sleepless nights rummaging through reels and reels of voters’ lists even before the enumeration phase began. It was not easy, as search by name was not available then. After several weeks, we had finally triumphed, found our family’s details, and got them mapped with our present names,” shared V. Swapna, an elector from LB Nagar, “Even while filling in the forms, we took extra care, by practicing on photocopies of the forms as advised by the BLO. Now we feel foolish for doing all that, because all our family members have got notices saying that our names remained unmapped with 2002 SIR. We have to stand in line along with others who had not bothered to fill in the details.”

As it had happened during the Enumeration Phase, BLOs at several places are not serving the notices at the doorstep. Instead, they are sitting in community halls, and waiting for the electors to come and pick up the notices.

“I learnt of the notices in our names from a neighbour who went there to collect his. I followed him and collected mine. The notice says we are unmapped despite the 2002 SIR details mentioned on the forms. BLO asked us to submit Aadhaar and date of birth proofs, which we did,” informed D. Sathish, another elector from RTC Colony, who vouched that at least 100 persons in his community got the notices despite providing 2002 SIR details.

An enquiry with the electoral officials revealed that many BLOs had not uploaded the 2002 details into the ECI mobile app on their mobiles, which eventually led to the notices considering the electors as unmapped. The buck, however, does not stop here.

“We could not upload the details wherever there was even a minor name mismatch, such as use of surname in place of initial, and use of caste names at the end of the actual name. The app simply did not accept,” said a BLO under the condition of anonymity.

A total 32,36,659 electors from the draft electoral rolls have been bundled under the category of unmapped voters. Notices have been generated in their names, with the date and time of the hearing to be conducted by the Electoral Registration Officer or the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer concerned.