New Delhi: Sunil Kumar, a voter in Delhi’s Jaunpur, a tightly packed middle class neighbourhood in the Chhatarpur constituency, has received a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) notice, making him part of the 37.7% voters in the area who have received such notices. However, the reason listed in his notice is peculiar: Kumar and his six siblings have been pulled up by the election commission because they share a father. “You have been linked with someone who is also claimed by six others as a father, giving suspicion of a likely incorrect match,” the notice read.Kumar’s siblings were at work, and he came to absolve them all, as well as his father, who has received a notice because his name in the 2002 rolls was listed as Kedar, and not Kedar Singh. Kumar has his father’s school certificate, but it is handwritten and is therefore, invalid. They live in a joint family which has been split between multiple polling stations. His booth-level officer (BLO) was made to perform the same task several times. She silently uploaded documents, clicked a photo of a stoic Kumar clutching his documents, completed the uploading process, and clicked a selfie with him. Then, the cycle repeated. As the process was about to come to an end, the app glitched. She has over a hundred notices with her, and works between two polling stations.“This is nothing but a waste of time. We are also suffering. I haven’t eaten breakfast or lunch today, and just recovered from dengue,” she said. “And where will people get birth certificates from? Even my mother only studied till class 3.”A total of 33.3 lakh people in Delhi received notices amid the ongoing SIR, and the city’s BLOs have been instructed to resolve the matter at the earliest, with a deadline of September 30, which the election commission has now been forced to push to October 30.The SIR has come under fire for various reasons, but the hearings have exposed the sheer absurdity of the entire cycle – the BLOs are deeply overworked and frustrated, the allotting of notices has been arbitrary, and many citizens do not know where to turn. Moreover, several BLOs have said that there is an absence of “mass awareness” and they are being made to inform each voter who has received a notice, even as the list has been made available on the CEO Delhi website. Many voters ignore their messages and decline their calls. When they respond, BLOs are caught in a further rut of assuaging fears well into the night and explaining rudimentary information that should have been made known to each voter at the very beginning of the process. Also read: Amid SIR Hearings Across Delhi, Many Voters Say They Were Unaware of Notices“It takes at least half an hour to complete a single form. Even educated, affluent people forget what we have previously told them. No area wide announcements are made. People don’t take the notice lists seriously and think their names are on the roll. So we have to keep calling them,” said another BLO from the same area. The BLOs use their own phones to upload the documents, which are constantly lagging due to the app’s file size. A BLO this reporter spoke to had even been forced to borrow her husband’s phone, as well as her children’s. They are not given any allowances for transport or other miscellaneous expenses during the process.Another BLO told The Wire they had spent Rs 400 just on making photocopies. Her day goes as follows: she wakes up at 5:30 AM, reaches the aanganwadi centre at 9:30 AM, and the polling station by noon. She sits there till 3 PM. When she goes home, she cooks for her family. She makes between 10-15 phone calls everyday to voters. “Ladies log ke toh hamesha kaam hota hai (Women constantly have work to do)” she said, hinting at the burden of household chores. “Aur yeh notices bhi itne chhoti-chhoti cheeze ke liye hai (And these notices are over such small issues).”Different locality, same absurditiesA BLO in Mehrauli said they also have several voters who have received notices over similar reasons. During the 2002 SIR, either the voters had given only their initials, or the official writing their names had misspelt them. For example, a voter who previously went by P.C. Kothari (as is mentioned in the 2002 rolls) and now uses his full name, has received a notice this time. The Indian Express has previously reported that the current system is unable to comprehend twins, who have received notices owing to sharing the same date of birth. In Mehrauli, where 38.8% voters have received notices, three BLOs sit behind a table at the Arya Samaj Temple. Outside, it is deafening. It is the day of Ganesh Visarjan, and the Hindu residents of the neighbourhood have taken out a procession, including a truck with a full-fledged sound system that is blaring Bollywood songs and sporadic chants of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”.The Arya Samaj temple where BLOs are conducting hearings, in Mehrauli, Delhi. Photo: Antara BaruahYet, at least one BLO continues working, meticulously using a fluorescent yellow highlighter to mark the voters who are yet to come to him. He has 248 voters with notices, and over a hundred remain. He has sent them Whatsapp messages as a reminder, with images of the notices, called them repeatedly, and told them where they need to come to pick up their notices. Some voters came to pick up their notices, only to not return with their documents, he said. He occasionally picks up the phone to patiently explain directions of the police station to the voters – it is next to Guddu’s Gym. Prior to the SIR, he had 1,400 voters. Now, he has about 750.He travels daily from Gurguram. Another BLO lives and teaches in Laxmi Nagar, about 23 kilometres away from Mehrauli. A third BLO, who is from the area, was seeing voters at a neighbour’s house. He had to pay for the WiFi from his own pocket. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to get all the notices cleared in one go, with all the BLOs stationed outside the election office?” asked an officer, adding that the question of notices has been blown out of proportion. In certain areas, like in the New Delhi constituency, where the city’s elite are housed, BLOs said that they were only making house visits. “People feel so intimidated when they hear the word notice. And in so many cases, it is a matter of two letters,” he said.They trade stories of absurdity. One voter received a notice because her grandmother was forty years older than her. In Mehrauli, an entire lane can have the same address. They have spent hours traversing the same roads, trying to find a single house.On Sunday, September 27, many constituencies held special camps to clear notices, which they also did last week. But here too, the BLOs are expected to reach out to individual voters, and request them to come. They are not sure whether the people will show up or not. “It is impossible,” said a BLO, shaking his head.For our full coverage on the SIR and the issues it has brought to citizens, click here.