Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer V Anbukkumar on Wednesday said that the process of the SIR was underway and that 80.85 per cent of the enumeration forms had already been distributed to electors across the state.
A door-to-door house enumeration exercise under the SIR of the electoral rolls began on June 30, as per the directions of the EC, and will continue till July 29.
Addressing a press conference here, Anbukkumar said, “We will be distributing the enumeration forms to every house in Karnataka, to every voter. In that process, 80.85 per cent of the enumeration forms have already been distributed to electors in Karnataka.” According to him, in 112 of the 224 Assembly constituencies, more than 90 per cent of the forms have been distributed, while in 169 constituencies, more than 80 per cent of the forms have already been distributed.
Listing the figures, he said that Chitradurga district had achieved 98.95 per cent distribution as of 2 pm on Wednesday, followed by Davanagere (98.74 per cent), Uttara Kannada (98.66 per cent), Mandya (97.65 per cent) and Vijayanagara (97.57 per cent).
“Like this, the districts are almost reaching saturation by tomorrow, and in some places, especially in urban areas, the progress is a little slow. Directions have already been issued to all the district election officers concerned to ensure that the enumeration forms reach the voters in time,” he said.
Regarding the high-performing Assembly constituencies, Anbukkumar said that Devadurga, Kumta, Hirekerur and Mayakonda had achieved 100 per cent distribution, while Karwar, Mulbagal and Melukote had achieved 99 per cent distribution.
On the low-performing Assembly constituencies, he said Bommanahalli had recorded 35 per cent distribution, the lowest in Karnataka, while Bangalore South had registered 39.95 per cent.
“So, for the BBMP area, instructions have already been issued. The areas under the city corporations of Kalaburagi, Mysuru, Belagavi and Tumakuru have performed a little slowly, but there is still enough time to distribute the enumeration forms. They have been directed to monitor the exercise,” he said.
Anbukkumar said the digitisation process was going on in parallel.
“Around 10 per cent of the forms have already been digitised in Karnataka. We have digitised more than 56 lakh forms in the state. Political parties have appointed 1,24,018 booth-level agents. Till date, we have identified around 1,30,975 people from whom the forms could not be collected for various reasons,” he said.
In this regard, the CEO said that a booth-wise list of uncollected forms, along with the reasons, would be shared with booth agents of all recognised political parties to ensure complete transparency.
Amid allegations of irregularities in the SIR process, including claims that forms were being distributed at community halls instead of through door-to-door visits, he said all complaints received on July 1 had been attended to, and a report had already been submitted to the EC.
“On July 1, the moment we received complaints that forms were being distributed in groups at some places, they were immediately attended to. Following that, clear instructions were once again issued to all DEOs and EROs that BLOs must distribute the forms by visiting every house. They have been directed to carry out only house-to-house distribution,” he said.
“If any specific instance or complaint is brought to our notice, we will certainly examine it,” he added.
Anbukkumar said he had clearly instructed all DEOs to conduct inquiries into such cases.
On July 6, an NDA delegation met CEO Anbukkumar, alleging massive irregularities in the SIR of electoral rolls and seeking an inquiry and door-to-door re-verification.
A day later, BJP and JD(S) leaders met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and demanded suspension of the exercise over alleged large-scale irregularities.
“I want to emphasise that every complaint, irrespective of its nature, will be looked into and reported to the EC,” he added.
“The entire Special Intensive Revision exercise has been and will be conducted as per the directions of the EC,” he added.