Telangana SIR: Software issues reportedly leave over 32 lakh voters ‘unmapped’
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Hyderabad: Several voters in Telangana who submitted enumeration forms with details from the 2002 Special Intensive Revision electoral rolls have reportedly received notices stating that their names could not be mapped with the earlier voter lists.
According to a report in The Hindu, possible glitches in the software used by the Election Commission of India may have led to some electors being wrongly classified as “unmapped”.
Several voters said they had spent considerable time tracing their names and details in the 2002 electoral rolls before submitting the required information through their enumeration forms. However, they were still issued notices asking them to appear before electoral authorities.
One elector, V. Swapna, told The Hindu that her family had searched old electoral rolls, identified their details and entered them in the forms. Despite this, every member of her family received notices saying their names had not been mapped with the 2002 SIR records.
The issue has also raised concerns over the manner in which notices are being delivered. In some areas, booth-level officers are reportedly not visiting voters’ homes to hand over the notices. Instead, electors are being asked to collect them from community halls.
Electoral officials said booth-level officers had faced difficulties uploading details from the 2002 electoral rolls on the Election Commission’s mobile application. A BLO, who spoke to The Hindu on condition of anonymity, said the application often failed to accept details when there were even minor differences in voters’ names.
Telangana currently has 32,36,659 electors listed in the unmapped category. Notices have been issued to these voters, specifying the date and time of hearings before the respective Electoral Registration Officer or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer.
Hyderabad alone accounts for 5,80,908 unmapped electors. Those issued notices have been asked to attend the hearings with relevant supporting documents.
