UP CEO Orders Scrutiny of Voter Forms Amid Row over Pilibhit Voters List

The directions were issued during a virtual meeting with divisional commissioners, district election officers, electoral registration officers (EROs), assistant electoral registration officers and computer assistants on Saturday, ahead of preparations for the Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls, according to an official statement issued on Sunday evening.

Rinwa directed that all Forms 6, 7 and 8 entered by computer assistants since the conclusion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) on April 10 be scrutinised to prevent a recurrence of incidents such as the one reported in Pilibhit.

Form 6 is used for inclusion of names in electoral rolls, Form 7 for objections to inclusion or deletion of names, and Form 8 for corrections and other changes to electoral entries.

The Uttar Pradesh Congress on October 21 had alleged large-scale manipulation of electoral rolls in Pilibhit Sadar Assembly constituency, claiming that names of 13,150 voters were changed while their EPIC and serial numbers remained the same.

The CEO warned that EROs, assistant electoral registration officers and computer assistants would be held accountable for such irregularities, with action under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. "District election officers would also be held responsible for lax supervision," the statement said.

Divisional commissioners, designated as roll observers, were directed to intensively monitor electoral roll-related work in their respective districts. Negligence in supervision would invite action against the officials concerned.

Rinwa also ordered that computer assistants must not be assigned the task of entering applications received in physical form. "All such forms must be digitised by booth-level officers (BLOs) through the BLO App," he said.

EROs were instructed to review all pending Forms 6, 7 and 8 daily and ensure their prompt disposal in accordance with rules. Physical applications must also be preserved securely.

The CEO asked officials to study Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, which deals with breaches of official duty in connection with the preparation, revision and correction of electoral rolls. He also directed them to ensure that errors identified during investigations into complaints received from political parties and through social media were not repeated.

Officials were instructed not to share their ERONET login IDs and passwords with anyone and to change their passwords immediately in accordance with the prescribed password policy.

The meeting also reviewed complaints concerning duplicate voters circulated on social media, according to the statement.

Rinwa expressed displeasure over district election officers in Bulandshahr, Sitapur, Ghaziabad and Aligarh failing to submit reports on the complaints in time and directed them to send the reports promptly.

He directed EROs to ensure timely and quality disposal of all complaints received since April 10 through the National Grievance Service Portal (NGSP), the Public Grievance Redressal System (PGRS), social media and other channels.

Officials were also asked to ensure that no call request received under the 'Book a Call With BLO' facility on the ECINET app and the Election Commission's voters.eci.gov.in portal remained pending for more than 48 hours.

"Action would be taken if BLOs marked citizens as 'Unavailable' without attempting to contact them or failed to respond to call requests within the stipulated time," the statement said.

Reviewing complaints from the special campaign day held on October 24, the CEO sought reports on BLOs who arrived late or remained absent from polling stations. He warned that recurrence of such complaints during special campaign days in the upcoming SSR would not be tolerated.

Rinwa also directed officials to take timely steps to remove all duplicate entries from electoral rolls to ensure that the draft rolls published during the forthcoming SSR did not contain duplicate entries.