SIR continues in Tamil Nadu, former CEC Gopalaswami receives enumeration form

Chennai, Nov 7 (PTI) The exercise of Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls continued for the fourth consecutive day across the state on Friday, officials said.

Greater Chennai Corporation said officials gave away an enumeration form to former Chief Election Commissioner, N Gopalaswami here and he briefly interacted with election officials on the SIR.

Chief Minister and ruling DMK President, M K Stalin, addressing a function, told his party functionaries that the SIR exercise must be monitored and a situation of "vote theft" must not be allowed in Tamil Nadu and that "prevention" must be the duty.

The CM said: "While legal battles (of DMK against the SIR in apex court) are one aspect, the voter list revision work is proceeding simultaneously. We have a great responsibility to monitor this. You must not forget that this is extremely crucial in today's context." The chief minster said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was leading a massive protest movement and he is providing evidence on the extent of "vote theft" in Karnataka and Haryana.

"We must not allow such a situation (that involves vote theft) to happen in Tamil Nadu. Prevention must be our duty," Stalin said adding every Booth Level Agent (BLA) of the DMK must undertake this great responsibility.

According to election officials, in this enumeration Phase, the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are distributing enumeration forms and they will collect the filled in forms in all the 234 Assembly constituencies.

The Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) are providing necessary instructions and guidance to BLOs, while the District Election Officers (DEOs) are overseeing and inspecting the overall implementation of the SIR activities in their respective districts.

The enumeration forms are being distributed across the state, marking a significant progress in the ongoing revision process.

Deputy Election Commissioner, Bhanu Prakash Yeturu, Director, Election Commission, Krishna Kumar Tiwari, have conducted a detailed review with the District Election Officers of 11 districts including Dindigul, Kanniyakumari, Madurai, Pudukkottai, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga and Tenkasi. Collectors have inspected the SIR implementation in their districts.

To clear doubts on SIR-enumeration forms, people in Chennai may call 044-2561 9523 and 1950 is the state-wide toll free number. PTI VGN VGN ROH