From door-to-door visits to special booths, Noida BLOs say SIR work ‘never stopped’

Special Summary Revision (SSR) camps were held across Uttar Pradesh to register first-time voters and those left out of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) rolls published in April. Suman Batra, a booth level officer (BLO) and teacher in Noida’s Sector 5 village of Harola, emphasized the importance of reaching out to every resident.

Batra has been calling residents since the beginning of the SIR exercise, which lasted three months and resulted in deletions of over 13 crore names from the draft rolls in 30 states and Union Territories. Although many people were initially confused, the simplified rules now allow new voters added under special circumstances to register without providing SIR information.

Around 900 polling centres in Gautam Buddha Nagar district held SSR camps on Saturday, with Vinay, a BLO since 2015, recounting his efforts to inform residents left out of the SIR. Despite the challenges, the BLOs continued their duties as teachers, balancing Form 6 registrations for new voters with their teaching responsibilities.