Hyderabad: Even as the Election Commission begins issuing notices to voters whose details have anomalies or remain unmapped during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), many remain clueless, saying they have not received physical notices.While some voters are going online to check whether notices have been issued in their names, they remain unsure about what to do next. In some cases, the reason for the notice is not mentioned, while in others, voters say there is little they can do about discrepancies in their name or age.“I was curious and checked online. I could see that a notice had been issued in my name. No reason was mentioned. What surprised me most was that my hearing date was Aug 31, but I received no intimation in the form of a physical notice, SMS or email. With Friday being Raksha Bandhan followed by the weekend, I do not know whether I would have received the notice in time to attend the hearing on Monday,” said a voter from Serilingampally constituency. He added that while the hearing date was available online, the time was not mentioned.Malik, a voter from Goshamahal constituency, said, “I came across a video on how to check the notice online and just followed the steps. If I had not seen the video, I would not have checked even today. I could see that there are two anomalies — a discrepancy in my name and a flag stating that the age gap between my father and me is less than 15 years, which is not the case.” He added that his hearing date is Sept 9.Many voters said they had not received notices and did not know whether their votes were clear or whether their names figured on the anomalies list.According to officials, more than 50% of the notices are issued for minor anomalies such as mismatches in names and dates of birth.“We have issued 14,000 notices till now. The hearings will start on Aug 28. Other notices have to be printed and distributed,” said S Srinivas Reddy, electoral registration officer (ERO), Rajendranagar. He said BLOs had been directed to issue notices in advance and submit an acknowledgement after serving them so that voters do not miss their hearings.Srinivas Reddy said a majority of anomalies pertained to errors in names and ages. “Likewise, notices are also sent to those who are unmapped, those having less than 15 years’ age gap with parents, among others,” he added.Hearings in most constituencies are due to start in the next day or two. However, some officials said they were considering whether to start hearings on Aug 28 as it is Raksha Bandhan.‘Don’t issue notices for minor anomalies’Members of civil society and community organisations, along with social activists, have demanded that the ECI stop issuing notices to voters for minor anomalies such as mismatches in names and age.They said both voters and officials could be spared the trouble, as minor mismatches account for around 60% of the total notices. They also demanded that officials closely monitor the processing of Forms 6, 7 and 8 submitted by voters, particularly in cases where applications could be rejected without proper verification or without following the prescribed procedure.
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