Uttarakhand draft electoral roll published after SIR phase-1; voters down to 71.33 lakh

Dehradun, Jul 14 (PTI) Additional Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Kumar Jogdande on Tuesday said that more than 71.33 lakh voters were included in the draft voter list, while 8.26 lakh may face deletion following the completion of the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Uttarakhand. Jogdande told PTI that out of 71,33,785 voters in the draft list, 52 per cent are male, 47 per cent female, and 217 belong to the third gender. The SIR exercise was conducted in the state on July 1. Under this, the distribution and digitisation of enumeration forms were completed between June 7 and July 8. Before the SIR process, Uttarakhand had 79,60,762 registered voters. Jogdande said that along with the SIR exercise, the restructuring of polling stations in the state was also completed, taking their numbers from 11,733 to 12,543. He assured that if an eligible voter's name is missing from the published draft electoral roll, they can fill out Form-6 to add a new name, Form-7 to delete a name, and Form-8 to make corrections in name, address, or other details. The poll officer said that it was mandatory to submit a declaration form along with Form-6. Claims and objections can be filed from July 14 to August 13, and will be disposed of by September 11. The final electoral roll will be published on September 15, he said. The additional chief electoral officer explained that during the drive, 8.26 lakh voters were identified whose forms were not received. Among them, 1.26 lakh voters were found to be deceased, 4.80 lakh voters had shifted to other locations, and 1.60 lakh voters were not found at their addresses. For this reason, the names of voters under the Absent, Deceased, and Shifted (ADS) category have not been included in the draft list, Jogdande said. He said that according to the draft list, Haridwar has the highest number of voters at 12.46 lakh, followed by Dehradun with 11.90 lakh and Udham Singh Nagar with 11.55 lakh registered voters. On the other hand, Champawat district has the lowest number of voters at 88,000, followed by Rudraprayag, which has approximately 1.80 lakh voters. Jogdande also informed that various types of discrepancies have been found in about 19 lakh cases among the voters included in the current draft electoral roll. In such cases, the concerned Electoral Registration Officer and Assistant Election Registration Officer will issue notices, following which cluster camps will be set up at the Nyaya Panchayat level for hearings. He said that special camps will be organised at the tehsil, municipal corporation, municipal panchayat, and ward levels to facilitate voters in filing their claims and objections. PTI DHM KSI KSI