Any day over the next one week, an intensive revision of electoral rolls will be launched in all the 24 Assembly constituencies of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and 12 other constituencies elsewhere in Telangana to cover a population of 1.09 crore.
The enumerators will go from door-to-door to enter the data of eligible voters on their tablets. In the process, the houses will be geo-tagged to show their latitudes and longitudes and the boundaries of local polling station areas geo-fenced by overlaying on Google maps. This was to ensure that inmates of houses within the natural boundaries of a certain area like roads were all allotted to a particular station. If the whole process which will culminate with the publication of final electoral rolls on October 7 succeeds, it is likely that it will be implemented in Delhi, Mumbai and other metropolis with a population of a million and above, according to Chief Electoral Officer of Telangana and AP Bhanwarlal.
He told The Hindu that intensive revision of electoral rolls had not taken place in combined AP after eighties. But, both annual summary revision in 146 constituencies and intensive revision in 29 urban constituencies of AP was taken up in August last year. The final rolls were published on January 16. The intensive revision was a huge success as 43 per cent of rolls were found to be incorrect.
Encouraged by the success, the Election Commission permitted intensive revision in bigger urban areas of Telangana, including GHMC, Warangal, Sangareddy, Khammam, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar and other places, to “purify” the electoral rolls. Mr. Bhanwarlal said GHMC, particularly, was chosen because the electoral rolls in its 24 constituencies were in bad shape as voters in one house were dispersed over different polling stations. The layout of polling stations itself was zigzag.
When the enumerators set out shortly, they will display door numbers on houses prominently — the lack of this was the main cause for polling stations losing their homogenous character as voters were unaware of house numbers, and rationalise polling station limits with natural boundaries.
The CEO added that summary revision of rolls for 83 other Assembly constituencies to cover 1.55 crore voters by merely inviting fresh applications through publicity and scrutinising them was over with final publication of rolls on June 30. About five lakh voters were added. But, about 25,000 staff will take part in intensive revision.
The eight-month delay in Telangana was attributed to reorganisation of districts and mandals. The work started after the new administrative units were incorporated in the electoral rolls management system.