Mumbai — Almost every Maharashtra voter who was issued a notice during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has been kept on the voter list, with 99.41 per cent of the 1.224 crore noticed voters re-included, election officials said in reports carried by Hindustan Times and The Times of India.

Notices were sent to 1.224 crore voters over discrepancies in the voter list or because their records could not be mapped with the 2002 rolls. Of these, the names of 1.220 crore voters have not been removed. Only 72,601 voters remain out — they have either not yet submitted documents or their documents are under verification.

The SIR process began in June. Of the state's 9.78 crore voters, 2.060 crore names were removed in the wider revision. Among those who received notices, discrepancies in details such as name, age or address were found in the records of 62.5 lakh voters, while the names of 59.8 lakh voters did not match the 2002 records, and they were asked to provide documents.

How the relief came

The Election Commission eased the SIR rules in Maharashtra and other states after controversy and protests over the process. Under the revised rules, the personal hearing before the Booth Level Officer (BLO) was abolished, voters can now send documents on WhatsApp as well, and the list of valid documents was expanded from the original 12 — PAN and Aadhaar were also added, which were not approved earlier.

According to assembly-constituency-level election officials, BLOs were instructed to exercise leniency after the protests and were given the freedom to decide whether to seek more information from a voter. The last date for submission of documents and their verification is November 23.

An official of the state Chief Electoral Officer's office told Hindustan Times that some more voters are expected to be added back from the remaining list. The official said that, except in West Bengal, less than 1 per cent of noticed voters' names have been removed in other SIR states, and that the figure may improve further because BLOs have not yet entered information on some forms.

District clearance rates

The highest disposal was in Nandurbar, where the clearance rate was around 99.99 per cent. It was 99.90 per cent in Wardha, Gadchiroli and Nashik, 99.89 per cent in Satara, 99.88 per cent in Thane, 99.87 per cent in Solapur and 99.86 per cent in Amravati. Mumbai suburbs recorded 99.73 per cent and Mumbai city 99.61 per cent.

The lowest rate was in Nanded at 96.18 per cent, followed by Jalna at 96.83 per cent, Gondia at 97.62 per cent and Ratnagiri at 97.66 per cent. Raigad recorded 98.61 per cent, Parbhani 98.62 per cent, Sangli 98.63 per cent and Ahmednagar 98.83 per cent.

Separately, the Election Commission received 23.6 lakh applications for addition, deletion and correction of names between August 31 and November 12 — 15.1 lakh Form 6 applications for adding names, 1,25,693 Form 7 applications for deletions and 7,15,729 Form 8 applications for corrections. The maximum, 1,91,308 forms, came from Mumbai Suburban district, followed by Pune with 1,65,446 and Thane with 1,64,834.