Chief Electoral Officer BDR Tiwari on Tuesday reiterated that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) must strictly adhere to the Election Commission’s prescribed house-to-house verification process, asserting that the forms are to be delivered directly to electors at their residences and not distributed from private premises or public locations. The clarification comes after allegations surfaced earlier this month from Mawprem under the 18-West Shillong Assembly constituency that BLOs had distributed forms from the residence of a former legislator of the West Shillong Assembly constituency, allegedly in violation of Election Commission guidelines.
Dr. Tiwari said, “All such things BLOs might be, they are suppose to approach and give the forms to prominent citizens but it’s not suppose to distribute, so all the field level functionaries have to ensure if they are calling the people it should be either the polling stations, in some cases to facilitate the people, common community place, but the mandate is that they have to distribute forms to the electors at their house. If the electors are not found in the house they have to made three consecutive visits and record that and then they are suppose to paste the enumeration forms at the house of the electors.”
It may be mentioned that earlier, the East Khasi Hills District Election Officer had directed the Booth Level Officer concerned to retrieve all Enumeration Forms that had been distributed from the residence of a former legislator of the West Shillong Assembly constituency after allegations emerged that the forms were distributed from the premises on June 30, July 1 and July 2. The issue was discussed during a meeting convened by District Election Officer Abhilash Baranwal with representatives of political parties on Friday to review the Special Intensive Revision process. Baranwal had said that a spot inspection was conducted by the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) on Thursday to ascertain the facts on the ground, following which the BLO supervisor was directed to personally assist the BLO in carrying out door-to-door distribution of Enumeration Forms to eligible electors in accordance with Election Commission guidelines.
Reviewing the progress of the SIR exercise, the Chief Electoral Officer said 19,91,883 Enumeration Forms have been distributed by BLOs to electors across the State. He noted that while the number of physically collected forms is yet to be compiled due to delays in digitisation, 5,64,610 Enumeration Forms have already been uploaded through the BLO application, accounting for 24.03% of the total. He attributed the slower pace of digitisation to persistent network connectivity issues during the monsoon season, describing it as a major operational challenge for field officials.
Responding to concerns over East Khasi Hills recording relatively slower progress, Tiwari defended the district’s performance, stating that field teams were actively engaged in ground verification, particularly in rural constituencies where progress has been better than in urban areas.
“East Khasi Hills is a slower district, the reason is they are working on the ground, rural constituencies in East Khasi Hills the percentage is higher than the urban. More people are in working class that is also one reason. Now all functionaries in full swing, I hope they will complete their task on time. Quiet satisfactory progress,” he added.
