SIR Goes On Without Hitch For The 16th Day In Tamil Nadu

Chennai: The Election Commission of India announced that 6,10.08,906 enumeration forms had been distributed by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in Tamil Nadu, covering 95.16 percent of electorate, under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls on Thursday when the lump sum remuneration was enhanced to Rs 14,000 for BLOs and to Rs 18,000 for BLO supervisors.

The filled forms were being collected by the BLOs personally and since Tuesday voters had been given the option of meeting them at the camps opened in the polling booths. Till Thursday, 17.37 percent of the total forms had been digitized, the ECI communique said.

A section of the State Revenue Department officials, who had called for a boycott of SIR with a demand for an increase in the remuneration, also withdrew the strike call, allowing the process to go on without any hitch.

Meanwhile, a member of the Tamil Nadu Transgender Welfare Board said that 8,000 of the transgendered population in the State faced a risk of losing their voting rights as the enumeration forms sought voters to provide documents to prove their residence in 2003.

Since the transgendered persons would have left their homes when they turned 18, their names would have been removed by the parents from the voters list. So they would not be able to furnish proof of their residence in the parents’ home, the board member said, adding that a petition had been submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the issue.