Kolhapur: The major challenge Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in Kolhapur’s urban areas are facing is the response from voters that their enumeration forms have not yet been filled, even as time is running out.To address this, BLOs have started reading out the names of Absent, Shifted, and Dead (ASD) voters, and are also pasting these lists at polling centres and ward offices.This is being done to identify voters who could not be mapped and were therefore classified as ASD, so that they can be brought back into the voter list and allowed to decide whether to retain their name at their existing address or shift it to their current place of residence.Aug 8 is the last date for the submission of the enumeration forms. In this Special Intensive Revision (SIR) it is more of the voters responsibility to ensure they proactively fulfill the needs to become eligible voters and find a place in the draft voters list to be declared on Aug 17.While few days are left, in Kolhapur district around 2.18 lakh enumeration forms — which is 6.5% of the total 33.53 lakh enumeration forms distributed — are yet to be submitted back to the BLO by the voters while just few days are remaining.“The voters say they are yet to fill in the details on the form. Some say they have their forms filled for some other place. At this moment we are trying to reach out to them through direct calls, messaging through their neighbours and relatives. We ensured that every mapped voter got the enumeration form. If they fail to return then they will not be part of the draft electoral roll to be published on Aug 17,” a BLO said.Mapping of 100% of the voters in Kolhapur district has been done and enumeration forms have been distributed to nearly all the mapped voters. So far 82% of the forms have been digitised. There are around 42,000 absent, shifted, deleted voters.There are 2.05 lakh demographically similar entries (DSE) and 39,631 photographically similar entries (PSE) , these are potentially duplicate voters flagged when sharing similar location or similar facial recognition by the software provided to the BLOs.“One of two duplicate entries of such voters will make it into the draft list. They are being informed to convey their choice of address. Such entries are mostly in towns and cities where people have shifted for work,” a BLO said.The booth level agents of political parties, local corporators in municipal areas or ward members in the villages have driven the distribution and submission of the forms.
