SIR in UP: Is it a voter list or a riddle? Notices are being issued to voters who have been registered for years; a mountain of objections and complaints is piling up.

A large number of objections and complaints are piling up regarding the draft voter list released under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) campaign in the capital city of Lucknow. This negligence came to light on Sunday after the voter lists were read aloud at various booths in Lucknow.  In some cases, elderly citizens who have been voting for years were asked for unusual information, while in other instances, the names of some members of the same family were found to be missing from the list.

Voted for 25 years, now asked for her maiden home address

Neha Jaiswal of Maqboolganj said that her 64-year-old mother, Pushpa Jaiswal, has been voting for 25 years. Despite this, the Booth Level Officer (BLO) issued her a notice and asked for information about her maiden home address.

Name of one of the three sisters missing

According to Rahmin of Phoolbagh, she filled out the form with her three sisters, but the name of her middle sister, Yasmin, is not on the list. Now the department is making them fill out the form again.

Form submitted, yet received a notice.

At the Ema Thomas Inter College booth, Farhat Naz said that despite completing the application, the BLO called her, handed her a notice, and made her fill out the form again.

Situation at the booths: Silence in the morning, activity increased in the afternoon

Most of the booths in the district, including Islamia Inter College, remained deserted in the morning. Until 12:30 pm, the BLOs were seen waiting for voters. However, people gradually started arriving at the booths in the afternoon. The BLOs read out the draft list and provided forms to new voters. No heavy crowds were observed at any booth.

Assistant District Election Officer Abhay Kishore Singh said that notices were issued only to those whose forms had incomplete information or whose names could not be mapped with the 2003 voter list during the SIR process. No one's name will be removed if the requested information is provided.

Total 8460 forms received during the SIR process

According to District Election Officer Vishakh G., the BLOs read out the voter list at 4132 polling stations across all nine assembly constituencies of the district on Sunday. A total of 8,460 forms were received during this process. These include 1,665 applications for Form-6 (adding new names) and 83 applications for Form-8 (corrections). The names of deceased, transferred, absent, or duplicate voters have also been removed from the list.