NEW DELHI: The large number of notices served on electors under special intensive revision largely stems from a key change made to the rules by EC following its experience during SIR Phase I in Bihar.The rules then required electors to attach documents proving their eligibility to be included in the roll – over a dozen documents were listed as acceptable proof of birth, citizenship and residence.However, following an uproar over the inconvenience to electors who may not have had these documents, EC revised the rules in Phase 2 covering 12 states/UTs, doing away with the requirement to submit documents and instead deciding to map electors with the electoral roll from the last SIR. The mapping works with inbuilt algorithms to flag logical discrepancies, based on which notices are automatically issued.“The logical discrepancy detecting software is agnostic and does not distinguish between a VIP and a common man. The fact that election commissioner S S Sandhu got a notice as his name was mentioned as S S Sandhu at one place and as Sukhbir Singh Sandhu at another proves this,” an EC functionary said.
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“The high number of notices seems to be unique to urban centres like Delhi, where the electors may have been a little casual while filling the enumeration forms. Also, the BLOs may have been more meticulous in checking forms at the enumeration stage, as this could have cut down the discrepancies that led to the notices,” said an EC official.