Thiruvananthapuram: Amid mounting political criticism of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U Kelkar said returning officers would decide whether voters who failed to correctly fill and submit enumeration forms need to appear for hearings in person.

If the documents submitted are found satisfactory, such voters may be exempted from attending a hearing. Addressing a meeting of representatives of political parties here on Saturday, the CEO also clarified that the Commission has no intention of deliberately excluding anyone from the electoral rolls.

According to him, notices are being issued to 19,32,688 voters, with distribution expected to be completed within two days. Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have been instructed not to trouble voters over minor discrepancies in names or age and to make such corrections themselves after receiving an affidavit. Strict directions will also be issued to BLOs to accept Form 6 submitted by voters.

The State Election Commission has been informed of the need to provide facilities for online submission of forms. Complaints have been received that the Election Commission website cannot be accessed from abroad. However, officials said the issue could be resolved by clearing the browser cache and trying again.

The SEC has made it clear that no one should be removed from the rolls due to mapping issues. If the deletion of any voter becomes unavoidable, the person concerned must be informed of the valid reason for such action.

Those who submit Form 6 along with an affidavit will be included in the final electoral roll to be published on February 21. Voters will be allowed to apply for inclusion in the rolls until the last date for filing nomination papers for the upcoming Assembly elections. A meeting of expatriate organisations will be convened on the 9th, while another meeting of political parties will be held before publication of the final list.

CPM leader DK Murali, Congress leader MK Rahman, Rajaji Mathew Thomas of the CPI, JR Padmakumar from the BJP, IUML member Muhammad Shah and other politicians including Mathew George, K Ananthakumar, KJ Jayakumar, KSA Halim and C Lenin attended the meeting.

BJP flags issues
Meanwhile, the BJP also raised concerns over the SIR procedures. JR Padmakumar, who represented the party, said there were widespread complaints that BLOs were reluctant to accept Form 6 from voters.

He further alleged that Akshaya centres were charging up to ₹100 per person to complete the procedures online, adding that forcing people to spend money to be included in the electoral roll was unjustified.