Confusion over errors in filling enumeration forms

Anxiety is palpable among electors over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) enumeration process, with many realising only after submitting their forms that they had made errors.

Meanwhile, others have held back from beginning the exercise altogether in the hope of obtaining complete clarity. This comes even as the house-to-house verification by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) is set to draw to a close.

From making inadvertent errors owing to either a lack of awareness like wrongly entering the relationship to whom the elector is mapped, to dealing with confusion over incorrect spellings recorded in the 2002 rolls, citizens are concerned over how these issues will be dealt with.

“In 2002, all our names were misspelt. Should I write my name wrong as mentioned in previous SIR or correct it? If I write my father’s name as spelt in 2002 SIR in the first and second sections, should I write the correct name in Section 3 or retain the wrong name? Will I be called an anomaly if I write the correct name?,” said V. Raghavender, an elector whose name is incorrectly spelt as Ragavender in previous SIR.

For context, the first section on the form seeks the elector’s details as mentioned in previous SIR, the second, the relative’s details as mentioned in the previous SIR, and the third, general details such as date of birth.

BLOs The Hindu spoke to said that they were flooded with queries connected to errors made on forms. “We, as well as local leaders, told people well in advance to take photocopies of enumeration forms, practise form-filling at least twice, first with pencils, and then with pens. But people come to us every day saying that they either made a spelling mistake, or filled incorrect details in the “relationship” section. We have even got queries about whitener [ink correction fluid]. We do not have instructions about this,” a BLO working at a booth in Ranga Reddy district said.

Another BLO, an Anganwadi teacher, said that she was unsure whether photocopies could be accepted instead of the distributed forms. “The same [QR] code gets copied on the photocopy. But I don’t know if there will be a problem in future if we accept such forms instead of originals. We have not reissued forms to the same elector so far,” she said.

Sharing his experience, J.S. Ifthekhar, a retired media professional, said, “I spelt my son-in-law’s name wrong in my daughter’s application. I wanted to know if I could apply whitener over it and write the correct name. I asked the BLO, he asked me to come to the ERO’s office to get a fresh form. But he did not come there, and I got no authentic answer at the office.”

While the District Election Officer’s X handle posted an instructional video on filling the form correctly, on July 7, it was in Telugu. “It will help a lot of people if the same video is in Hindi, or Urdu, and English as well,” said Wasim Khan, an elector of the Charminar constituency.

Hyderabad District Election Officer and Commissioner of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation R.V. Karnan clarified that in case of a wrong entry, the elector may strike it off, write the correct entry, and sign near the correction.

Another suggestion entailed giving the form with the correct entry to the BLO, and retain the form with the corrected entry with the elector.