Two-day SIR special drive gets moderate response in Tiruchi

The two-day special drive to collect the filled-in enumeration forms has evoked moderate response from voters in Tiruchi.

The drive was part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which seeks to ensure accuracy of the electoral rolls by identifying the absent, shifted, or dead voters and duplicate entries (ASDD) and include new voters who will be 18 on January 1, 2026. The existing voters are matched with the previous SIR conducted in 2002 or 2005.

According to sources, more than 22 lakh out of the 23.68 lakh voters in the district have been distributed the enumeration forms as on November 20 in the district. The enumerators, who collect the filled-in enumeration forms, upload them on a daily basis. Data of nearly eight lakh voters, who have submitted the filled-in enumeration forms have been matched and uploaded so far in Tiruchi district.

To collect the filled in forms, a special drive was conducted on Saturday and Sunday. The voters were asked to hand over the forms to the Booth-Level Officers (BLOs) at their respective polling booths. Help desks were functioning. The response to the drive was said to be nominal. While more voters came to the booths on Saturday, the enthusiasm among the voters was less on Sunday.

At a polling booth set up at St. John’s Vestry Anglo Indian School in Tiruchi, which is part of the Tiruchi West constituency, 50 voters handed over the forms on Saturday. The number was just 20 on Sunday. The percentage of collected forms in the booth, which has 797 votes, in the special drive has not crossed 10%. The enumerator has so far distributed 750 forms. The number of collected forms stood at 400 on Sunday. Similar is the response in several other booths as well.

“We expected that the response would be huge during the two-day drive. However, we find that the response is moderate. We do not know the reasons,” an enumerator told The Hindu.

Another enumerator said voters living in thickly populated areas and urban slums had been showing interest in collecting the forms and returning the filled-in forms. The political parties had extended support to execute the drive. However, the response was not that good among the voters in upscale areas and apartments.

With just 10 days left for the SIR to conclude, the field-level enumerators said that it was difficult to complete the task within the short period. New methods should be introduced to reach out to absent and shifted voters. More intensive awareness programmes should be organised.