Hyderabad: When residents of Hyderabad’s Barkas visited Qurmushi School to meet the Booth Level Officer (BLO) assigned to polling station number 101 of Chandrayangutta Assembly constituency, they found a man with no knowledge of the exercise he was meant to conduct. Residents allege he is a sanitation worker who was assigned the role without any training.
Their frustration was not an exception. It was a window into a much wider problem.
Across several areas of Hyderabad, BLOs are struggling with basic aspects of the pre-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) mapping process. Some have been telling residents that family mapping is not possible if a voter is above 40 years of age, which is incorrect.
Others are uncertain about which family relations are permissible for the exercise.
Syed Mushtaq Ahmed, Personal Assistant to Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, flagged a particularly glaring error at multiple awareness camps. He said some BLOs are mapping married women with their fathers-in-law, a combination that is not permitted under the Election Commission of India’s (EC) guidelines.
No response or acknowledgment
Beyond incorrect mapping, residents have raised concerns about BLOs being unreachable. Many are not responding to calls and are dragging their feet on the process, they alleged.The absence of any acknowledgment system has added to the anxiety.
Several BLOs have been asking voters to send their details over WhatsApp and treating that as the completion of mapping, leaving residents with no way to verify whether it was done correctly or at all.
What the mapping process involves
Mapping is a pre-SIR exercise currently underway in Hyderabad and other districts of Telangana. Voters whose names appear in the 2002 SIR list can map themselves. Those whose names do not appear can map with eligible relatives.
The ECI has specified exactly six permissible relations for this purpose. They are father, mother, maternal grandfather, maternal grandmother, paternal grandfather and paternal grandmother.
Mapping with any other relative is not allowed.
Contrary to what some BLOs have been telling residents, there is no age restriction on who can map with a relative. Electors of any age are eligible, provided their names are not in the 2002 SIR list.
The SIR exercise itself is expected to commence in Telangana in May.
