Telangana SIR: BLOs to collect papers from those served notices

In a major relief to electors served notices over logical discrepancies or for being unmapped, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will visit their homes to collect the required documents.

Hyderabad: The Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) issued instructions on Monday, September 28, to implement the Election Commission of India (ECI) decision that voters served notices during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) would no longer have to appear for hearings and would instead be visited by officials.

In a major relief to electors served notices over logical discrepancies or for being unmapped, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will visit their homes to collect the required documents, said the CEO’s memo addressed to all Collectors, District Election Officers (DEOs) and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) in the state.

The BLOs will subsequently upload the documents to the ECINet platform for the ERO to review.

“Such persons need not be called for hearing to the ERO/AERO office,” said the memo, adding, “Only in exceptional circumstances, as decided by the ERO, a hearing will be held, preferably online.

It added that the elector can even authorise any adult from the to attend the hearing on their
behalf, if required.

The memo also notes that the DEOs will create an adequate number of help desks and hold special camps “for people living in night shelters, labourers, poor people, the homeless, etc”.