Telangana SIR: Over 50,000 Form 7 applications filed after deadline

Hyderabad: More than three weeks have passed since the claims and objections on the voters inclusion as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls concluded in Telangana. However, applications (Form 7) seeking deletion of voter names continue to flood the election officials in the State.

Information generated by the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer’s office has revealed that a staggering 50,908 applications filed between October 8 and October 31 even as the claims and objections phase ended on October 7. Interestingly, of these, 48,623 applications have already been accepted and marked them for deletion from the final electoral roll that will be published on November 30, while only 435 were rejected.

Ranagreddy district topped the filing with 11,935 applications and 11,378 received nod for deletion. Hyderabad has the second highest number of filing at 9,858. Of these, 9,616 applications were approved and only four were declined. Similarly, Medchal Malkajgiri recorded 4,018 applications, 3,783 acceptances and four rejections.

Ironically, during the claims and objections phase between August 17 and October 7, only 15,442 Form 7 applications were filed. Of these, 12,930 applications got approval and 1,637 rejected. Now, filing of a large number of applications seeking deletion of voters’ names from rolls post the claims and objections phase and the same being accepted by officials has now raised serious questions about the SIR process in the State.

When contacted, TG CEO senior officials could not provide a proper explanation to the large number of Form-7 filing post claims and objections phase.

State election officials maintained that there was a glitch in the data generation and some past applications also reflected in the statistics. “Deletion of a voter name from roll is no cakewalk. A speaking order has to be given by the ERO, mentioning the reasons for deletion. Only after such an order is given, the voter is removed from the list. We are trying to include as many voters as possible in the final electoral list,” they said.

Altogether, 5,88,659 Form 7 applications were recorded from January 1 to October 31. Of these, 5,16,052 applications were accepted, 57,980 rejected and 14,627 pending for decision.