BRS Leader Alleges Irregularities in Hyderabad's SIR Mapping Process

BRS Legislative Party deputy leader and Sanath Nagar MLA Talasani Srinivas Yadav has alleged serious irregularities in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) mapping in Hyderabad. On Wednesday, May 13, a BRS delegation led by senior leader Gurram Pawan Kumar Goud submitted letters addressed to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the GHMC Commissioner, raising concerns over the voter revision process. In the representation, Talasani Srinivas Yadav claimed that the SIR mapping is being carried out by poorly trained Booth Level Officers (BLOs). According to him, several BLOs were facing difficulties while using the mobile application for data entry and voter mapping. He also alleged that many BLOs are not conducting door-to-door surveys as part of the exercise. The mapping process picked up pace in Hyderabad after the District Election Officer (DEO) of Hyderabad, RV Karnan, assigned daily mapping targets to officials. During a review meeting held on Monday, April 27, each BLO was asked to cover 100 voters per day. Supervisors were given a higher target of 1,000 voters daily. In the mapping process, electors in the current electoral rolls need to get mapped with the names of either themselves or their relatives in the 2002 SIR list. For SIR, electors can map themselves only with the allowed relatives. They are father, mother, maternal grandfather, maternal grandmother, paternal grandfather, and paternal grandmother. Those who successfully map themselves are not required to submit any ECI-listed document. However, they may be asked to prove the relationship with the mapped person in case of logical discrepancies in the later stages of the exercise. In such cases, any document, not limited to the ECI-prescribed list, can be submitted to establish the relationship. On the other hand, those who could not complete SIR mapping in Hyderabad need to submit documents from the ECI-listed ones based on their date of birth.