Deputy Commissioner T.K. Swaroopa on Wednesday urged Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to carry out the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls with utmost honesty, transparency, and vigilance.

Speaking at a training programme organised for BLOs and BLAs of the Kapu Assembly constituency in Kapu, Ms. Swaroopa said the success of democracy depends on a transparent electoral roll. She said that under the SIR, BLOs and BLAs should ensure responsibly that the names of every eligible voter are included in the roll and that genuine voters are not deprived of their right for any reason.

She said the Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced October 1 as the eligibility date for the SIR. House-to-house visits and re-allocation of polling stations will be carried out by BLOs from June 30 to July 29, and the draft electoral roll will be published on August 5.

When BLOs hand over printed application forms to voters during house-to-house visits, voters should, besides providing all required details, also affix a recent passport-size photograph, the DC said. She said enumeration forms should be distributed only by BLOs and not by BLAs. Voters should submit the filled-in forms to the BLOs.

Additional DC Abid Gadyal, Kapu Tahsildar B. Anant Shankar B. and others were present during the programme.

Commending officials for successfully mapping voters and achieving approximately 95% progress in Karkala taluk, thereby putting it ahead in the district, Ms. Swaroopa urged them to include the names of about 5,000 voters who have gone out of the taluk for employment.

Speaking at the BLO and BLA training programme for the Karkala assembly constituency, the DC said the voter-mapping process was almost complete and that the responsibility of including omitted names lay with the BLOs.

Additional DC Abid Gadyal said the SIR was being conducted to ensure that only Indian citizens vote, according to the Constitution. Training workshops are being organised at the taluk level mainly to ensure coordination between BLOs and BLAs.

Karkala Tahsildar Pradeep Raam and others were present.