New Delhi

As the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) got underway in Delhi on Tuesday, booth-level officers (BLOs) fanned out across neighbourhoods to distribute enumeration forms, saying that the exercise is expected to become more demanding in the coming days due to difficulties in locating residents and ensuring every household is covered.

More than 13,000 BLOs began the door-to-door exercise across Delhi’s 70 Assembly constituencies as part of the Election Commission’s voter verification drive that will continue till July 29.

Mahendra Kumar, a BLO engaged in distributing forms, said the field exercise had entered its final stage with officials visiting households to hand over enumeration forms.

"The final stage of the SIR has started today. We have been given enumeration forms to distribute door-to-door," he said.

He said he had mapped the area under his polling booth during the first phase of the SIR.

Another BLO deployed in Subhash Mohalla under the Babarpur Assembly constituency said the exercise had started around 10 am and was physically demanding.

"We started distributing the enumeration forms around 10 am today, and it’s been quite exhausting. This area has a mixed population and mostly permanent houses, but locating the correct addresses is often a challenge.", he said.

In many cases, residents are either not at home or do not respond despite repeated knocks, so we have to return later. Since this is only the first day of the exercise, we expect the work to become more demanding in the coming days as we try to ensure every household is covered, the BLO added.

Residents said the BLOs were helping them understand the forms and complete the required details.

"The BLO explained the form to us and helped us fill it. We have also been given a contact number to reach the official if we need any further assistance," a resident said.

According to officials at the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer's (CEO) office, BLOs have been instructed to carry out door-to-door visits early in the morning and in the evening, including on Saturdays and Sundays, when residents are more likely to be at home.

Recognised political parties are also participating in the exercise through their booth-level agents (BLAs), who will assist voters in filling and submitting the forms.

Delhi has 13,033 polling stations spread across seven Lok Sabha constituencies and 70 Assembly segments.

During the SIR exercise, each voter will be provided with two copies of the enumeration form. One copy will be retained by the voter as an acknowledgement, while the other will be returned to the BLO. No documents are required to be submitted along with the forms.

The forms must be filled by every voter to ensure that their names are included in the final electoral roll, which is scheduled to be published on October 7.

According to the CEO's office, names of voters who do not submit the forms will not appear in the draft electoral roll to be published on August 5.

Officials said each BLO would make at least three visits to households found locked during the survey.

Delhi has 1.45 crore registered voters, including 77.11 lakh men and 67.98 lakh women. The electoral rolls were frozen on June 16, by which date the capital had 1,45,10,298 registered electors.

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Electors who shifted to Delhi after 2002 will be required to provide details of the last SIR conducted in their native state where they were previously registered as voters. The electoral rolls of all states are available on the Election Commission's portal.

Voters also have the option of submitting their enumeration form details online.