Bengaluru, 07 August (H.S.):As the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Karnataka nears completion, Belagavi district has digitised the enumeration forms of nearly 87.5% of its voters, while more than five lakh electors have been classified under the Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others (ASDDO) category.

Belagavi district has around 41.07 lakh registered voters spread across 18 Assembly constituencies. Booth Level Officers (BLOs) distributed 41.07 lakh enumeration forms using the 2002 SIR documents and the existing electoral rolls as the basis for verification.

Officials said around 38.43 lakh voters were mapped during the exercise, while approximately 35.95 lakh enumeration forms were returned. Of these, 35.90 lakh forms have been digitised, with another 4,455 forms awaiting digitisation.

Around 12.5% of voters in the district have been left out of the exercise so far.

Among the Assembly constituencies, Arabavi recorded the highest proportion of voters left out at 15.2%, followed by Gokak at 15% and Kudchi at 14.48%.

Yamakanamaradi recorded the highest inclusion rate at 91.68%, followed by Athani at 91.24% and Belagavi Rural at 89%.

The relatively high number of voters remaining outside the revision process has prompted concern among activists, who have sought more time for electors to complete the necessary formalities.

M.M. Makandar, convenor of the SIR Awareness Committee, said many voters were yet to fully understand the revision process and needed additional time to arrange documents required for inclusion. The committee has written to Chief Electoral Officer V. Anbukumar seeking an extension of the deadline.

District Electoral Officer Mohammad Roshan said the ASDDO list, containing around 5.13 lakh names, had been shared with political parties for verification.

Voters and Booth Level Agents have also been asked to scrutinise the list and submit objections, if any, to BLOs or senior election officials.

Roshan said certain shortcomings had been detected during voter-information mapping and officials had been given special training to rectify errors, including mistakes in voters’ names.

He said scrutiny was being carried out at every stage to ensure that the SIR was completed transparently and accurately. The final electoral roll would be published after considering objections and representations from political parties and voters.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Arun Lakshman