8.67L forms received during ongoing drive: TS electoral officer Vikas Raj

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vikas Raj on Friday said 8.67 lakh forms (for filing objections and claims) were received as part of the ongoing Special Summary Revision (SSR) 2023.

A total of 5.66 lakhs Form 6, 1.83 lakhs Form 7, and 1.17 lakhs Form 8 have been received so far.

The applications received by the last date, 8 December 2022, will be disposed of by 26 December. Further, the applications received after 8 December will be part of the continuous updates and will be processed after the final roll publication, said Mr. Raj.

All applications received between 1 October and 9 November were not disposed of before the draft roll publication and are being disposed of now by the EROs which will be part of the final roll publication, he said and added that the final roll will be published on 5 January 2023.

No voter left behind

He also said that in order to ensure that no elector is left behind, various interventions under systematic voter enrolment and electoral participation (SVEEP) were taken up targeting various stakeholders.

To target voters between the age group of 18-19 years in about 1,700 colleges, Election Literacy Clubs (ELC) were conducted, campus ambassadors identified, and SMS alerts sent to the students, the CEO said.

Specific campaigns were taken up for tribal groups like Kolams, Thoti, Chenchus, and Kondareddis in 361 tribal habitations and application forms were collected from 2,500 tribals who were not enrolled earlier, he added.

Data from the pensions database of SADAREM and pension was used to mark the PWD electors.

Mr. Raj further said that to address the urban apathy of electors, various programmes were taken up with the help of resident welfare associations (RWAs), SMS alerts were sent to property tax owners, and street plays were conducted. Awareness campaigns in areas with high footfall and audio messages through sanitary vehicles were also taken up. All BLOs have taken up door-to-door surveys to collect forms from eligible citizens, he added.