Date of death unavailable, deceased voters in Chennai marked permanently shifted
CHENNAI: With one-day special electors help desks conducted on Saturday at 947 polling booths and high-rise buildings across 16 Assembly constituencies in the city, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) said that they continue to face difficulties in processing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) forms related to shifted residents, as well as deceased voters. Speaking to TNIE, BLOs said that though relatives reported the deaths, many are unaware of the exact date of death and did not possess any supporting documents such as death certificates. As a result, BLOs said they have been compelled to classify such individuals whose deaths are confirmed, but dates remain unknown as permanently shifted during the enumeration phase of the roll revision as the mobile app they use did not allow them to mark a voter as deceased without mentioning the date. A BLO in the Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni Assembly constituency said, In my booth alone, 120 voters were identified as deceased, but relatives of only about 10 of them could recall the exact date of death. Without this information, we cannot update the BLO app to mark the voter as deceased. Keeping these unprocessed forms also leads to confusion, so we have begun classifying such cases as permanently shifted. The BLO further said that the booth includes several residents who were relocated to Kannagi Nagar, Semmencherry, and Perumbakkam Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) tenements. Many of these residents collected the forms but have not returned them, amounting to more than 250 pending forms. Another 100150 forms remain undistributed because Im unable to trace those shifted residents, she added. Another BLO said that in her booth, 50 voters were identified as deceased, but relatives of only six could recall the date of death, leaving the remaining 44 cases to be classified as permanently shifted. The BLOs also expressed concerns over mounting workload, noting that many forms still need to be distributed or collected. In another booth, nearly 100 forms remain undistributed. Despite the special help desk being set up on Saturday, about 97 voters are yet to collect their forms, the official said.