Chandigarh, July 15 (IANS) Haryana’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) A. Sreenivas on Wednesday said that around 2.6 lakh people have not yet returned the filled enumeration forms, distributed as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, with the maximum pending forms in Gurugram.

This comes a day after the Election Commission of India (ECI) modified the schedule for SIR of electoral rolls in Andhra Pradesh and Haryana, setting October 3 as the date for final publication of the voters’ list in both states.

While the qualifying date for both states will be July 1, the ECI has decided that the draft publication of the electoral rolls will take place on July 31 in both Andhra Pradesh and Haryana.

Speaking to IANS, Sreenivas said: “Around 2.6 lakh people in the state have still not returned the enumeration form after filling the details. So we requested the Election Commission to extend the date (of publishing the final draft rolls).”

“Now with the extended date, our efforts will be to ensure that no elector is left and we will try collecting each of the filled enumeration forms. District Collectors have also been involved…and we are making all possible efforts in areas where maximum forms are pending,” he added.

The Haryana CEO mentioned that the maximum number of filled enumeration forms that are yet to be returned by the voters are in Gurugram.

“Maximum applications are pending in the urban areas like that of Rohtak, Gurugram, Faridabad, and Hisar, with the maximum in Gurugram where about 1.2 lakh are yet to return the forms,” he said.

Explaining the ASD category in the SIR process, Sreenivas said: “The category we refer to as ASD — Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate voters — currently accounts for approximately 16.28 per cent of the electorate across Haryana. In numerical terms, this is around 33.6 lakh people. Those names will not feature on the new draft roll.”

Further, the ECI had said that the period for filing claims and objections will be from July 31 to August 30, adding that the notice phase or disposal of claims and objections will be carried out from July 31 to September 28.

The final publication of electoral rolls will take place on October 3, it said on Tuesday.

The Haryana CEO said that the department is prepared for the claims and objections that would be filed by the voters.

“We are assuming that there will be a huge number of claims and objections, which is why, apart from the already notified EROs (Electoral Registration Officers) and additional EROs, we are also notifying more officials of the Election Commission across Haryana… so that voters don’t face issues later,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sreenivas denied reports of alleged sexual harassment with a female BLO in Haryana’s Nuh district, saying, “We have spoken to the DC and the SP, this matter is an individual case and not related to SIR.”

“The place from where the incident has been reported, our BLO is not involved, and it has got nothing to do with SIR,” he reiterated.

–IANS

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