BLO checking voter list

Pune: Political parties in Pune district are lagging behind in appointing booth-level agents (BLAs) for the upcoming special intensive revision (SIR) of voter lists, while the administration needs more than 8,000 personnel for the exercise.Pune District Collector and District Election Officer Jitendra Dudi said times of India Repeated appeals have been made to the parties. “We have asked them to complete the appointments as soon as possible so that the work can proceed smoothly,” Doody said.Deputy election officer Meenal Kalaskar said political parties are required to formally appoint a BLA for each polling station. “We have 8,417 polling stations in Pune district and each party has to appoint equal number of agents. Once the appointments are made, the details have to be submitted to the election office. Only then can these agents assist the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in special intensive vetting work,” she said.Kalaskar said many parties need to complete the process before the June 20 deadline. “These political agents can assist BLOs during domestic visits as part of the SIR exercise,” he said.The District Administration will conduct SIR campaign to update and clean the voter list across Pune district under the instructions of Election Commission of India. Between June 30 and July 29, physical verification of approximately 91.16 lakh voter records will be done door-to-door.During the exercise, BLOs will verify voter details including name, address, photo and other details. Entries under the category “Absent, Transferred, Dead and Duplicate” will also be scrutinized.Officials said that out of the total 91.15 lakh voters in Pune district, around 51.41 lakh voters have been identified so far.According to the schedule released by the election authorities, printing of counting forms and BLO training will be conducted between June 20 and June 29. The draft voter list will be published on August 5, while claims and objections can be filed till September 4. The final voter list is scheduled to be published on October 7.District administration data shows that political parties have so far appointed only a fraction of the required BLAs.in Pune district BJP has appointed 2,746 BLAs, followed by NCP 984, NCP (SP) 658, Shiv Sena 400 and Congress 204.Shiv Sena (UBT) has appointed 28 BLAs, while MNS has appointed only one. AAP and Samajwadi Party have not appointed any agent yet.Maharashtra There are 1,00,253 polling stations. BJP has named 52,215 BLAs, Shiv Sena 17,800, Congress 17,421, Shiv Sena (UBT) 10,140 and NCP (SP) 4,468.In the state, voter list mapping has reached 72%, with seven crore voters out of 9.86 crore voters mapped.State election officials said BLOs will visit every house from June 30 to July 29 and verify whether the mapping has been completed.A party official said that they will soon start the BLA naming process. “We are already working and we will adhere to the deadline,” he said.