Hyderabad: A social audit of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Telangana has disclosed skewed boundaries of the jurisdictional limits of polling booths in densely populated assembly constituencies like Musheerabad, in Hyderabad, which has adversely impacted the interface between booth level officers (BLOs) and voters, with members of even a single household being dispersed across several poll booths.The issue was highlighted during a media conference on Tuesday (November 3) for the release of a report by the civil society group Telangana Voter Rights Forum (TVRF), which conducted a public hearing on SIR.The jury for the public hearing conducted for Secunderabad Cantonment constituency consisted of economist and political analyst Parakala Prabhakar, former chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights Shanta Sinha, economist and journalist C. Ram Manohar Reddy, Sister Manjula of National Dalit Christian Watch, educationist Maria Tabassum and educationist and social activist Father Jose Maliekal. Meanwhile, at Musheerabad, the jury included retired IAS officer Akunuri Murali, former Editor of a Telugu daily A. Ramachandra Murthy, retired professors G. Haragopal and Padmaja Shaw and social activists S.Q. Masood and Rubeena Nafees.The TVRF conducted door-to-door surveys in poll booths of two assembly constituencies in Hyderabad, followed by public hearings in two wards of Musheerabad and Secunderabad Cantonment constituencies last month. Several voters whose names were deleted from draft rolls and who were served notices during SIR, were present at the release held at Press Club, Basheerbagh, in Hyderabad, on Tuesday. The report was also sent to the Chief Electoral Officer of Telangana on the same day. One house, eight polling boothsOne of the findings of the report referred to a house in Bholakpur, in Musheerabad constituency, which has an extended family with members assigned to eight booths. Similarly, TVRF volunteer A. Suneetha explained at the briefing, about 1,700 voters residing in the limits of one particular booth (booth number 95) of Bholakpur, who were surveyed as part of the TVRF audit, were dispersed across 78 booths for the purpose of casting vote.These voters reside in a few lanes within a less than half-kilometre radius. Yet, the members of the households were assigned two to seven different polling booths in each case, and the enumeration lacked door-to-door visits by BLOs.Also read: What is the SIR Costing?Suneetha noted that besides posing logistics problems both to BLOs and voters, the complex boundaries of polling booths confounded the local area of voters.“If the limits of polling booths are not contiguous and voters scattered, how do we ensure representational democracy at the local level?” she asked.There was also widespread confusion over English-only enumeration forms and mapping requirements to 2002 SIR rolls.Over 41% of surveyed voters in Musheerabad received SIR noticesThe draft electoral rolls for Telangana SIR were published on August 17. It was found that over 1.4 lakh voters across Musheerabad constituency were placed in the ASDD (Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate) category.Further, the field verification by TVRF team showed that 41.11%, that is 752 out of 1,829 surveyed voters, had received SIR notices, many of which had no reason mentioned. Others also received notices for not being mapped to the 2002 list.TVRF noted that the teams found it extremely difficult to identify booth-specific houses and had to adopt a geographical approach for the survey. They verified residents living in the same houses, lanes and localities even if they were assigned to different booths.“Since 100 per cent verification was not possible because of these challenges, the exercise used a random sample. A total of 1,829 voters were verified across 78 polling booths, For the public hearing, fifteen polling booths with the highest number of ASDD cases were identified and the concerned BLOs were requested to attend the proceedings for immediate resolution of deletions,” the report stated. Also read: Telangana SIR: CM Revanth Reddy Writes to CEC Gyanesh Kumar as Over 73 Lakh Voters Marked ‘Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate’In the sample of 1,829 surveyed people, 95 people were put on the ASDD list, of whom the TVRF team verified that 42 voters were wrongfully deleted. They found that these voters were physically present at their places of residence when TVRF teams conducted the field surveys.As many as 752 people out of 1,829 surveyed people had received notices for anomalies or ‘logical discrepancies’. The TVRF teams met 22 of them and found that 11 of them were not assigned any reasons for the notices, while the remaining 11 were issued notices for minor corrections.At the public hearing later, a painter and construction worker Saibaba said the names of all his 10 family members were removed from the draft voter list on the grounds of permanent shifting of residence. In fact, he said he was briefly away from the location due to the death of his mother. The family sold its house and relocated to an adjacent lane.A. Ramachandramurthy, former editor of a Telugu daily and a member of the jury of the social audit, expressed exasperation at the same hearing that his and his brother’s names were deleted from the list. A retired professor G. Haragopal also expressed dismay at receiving notice to address a discrepancy of “lack of time gap between” the birth of his twin sons.In Secunderabad Cantt, BLOs didn’t collect enumeration forms for over half of ASDD votersOf the 1,829 voters surveyed at two polling booths in Trimulgherry area of Secunderabad Cantonment constituency on October 31, 721 or 39% voters were placed in ASDD list, the survey found. It was found that the BLOs never collected the enumeration forms from 379 of them, resulting in their names figuring in the ASDD list in the two booths of the constituency.While 1,104 or 60% voters made it to the draft rolls, 824 of them – which meant three out of four – were served notices. According to TVRF’s report, 84% of the notices – 689 out of 824 – were issued on the grounds of “unmapping” with the 2002 list.TVRF volunteers visited 231 voters whose names were in the ASDD list in the two booths. In one of the booths, the TVRF checked the markings of 174 voters and found that 40 of them were wrongly deleted. A person named Arun Kumar said he and his wife had lived at the same address for years and voted in consecutive elections. The couple had submitted the enumeration forms on time and even received a signed acknowledgement from the BLO. But, Arun Kumar said his name still appeared in the under “untraceable/absent” category in the draft rolls. He refused to reapply as a fresh voter with Form 6. “My vote is my right and I want to retain my record,” he said.What happens to old votes?Similarly, Gundelli Narender, a false ceiling technician who resides in Bholakpur, in Musheerabad constituency, asked what happens to his previous votes if he fills Form 6, as suggested by election authorities.Notably, Form 6 is for new voters and anyone filling it would automatically get a new Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number. This suggestion by the Election Commission of India has been criticised by voters in several states.Narender says his name is shown as “untraceable”. It was deleted from the list along with that of his mother and sister who stayed with him. However, the names of his father and brother, who reside in the same address, figured in the draft rolls.Speaking to the media, Parakala Prabhakar spoke about Union home minister Amit Shah’s recent claim to ‘weed out infiltrators’ and disenfranchise them at a BJP rally in Hyderabad. Economist and political analyst Parakala Prabhakar addressing the media conference on TVRF’s SIR public audit. Photo: By arrangementPrabhakar said, “It was on May 27 this year that the Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission to forward to the Union government within four weeks names of persons deleted from electoral rolls over doubtful citizenship under Citizenship Act, 1955. It is more than five months now since the direction was given but not a single list was submitted by the EC.”He criticised Union home minister Amit Shah’s claim at Hyderabad on Monday that the SIR helped delete three crore infiltrators from Bangladesh.“They (Union government) say SIR was also held in 2006. If that is so, it means millions of foreigners remained in the country after that and participated in elections up to 2025, including Parliament polls in 2014, 2019 and 2024. These elections should be considered irregular and the governments formed as a result be deemed irregular. “If that is true, please resign and conduct elections after purification of voters’ list”, he said. For our full coverage on the SIR and the issues it has brought to citizens, click here.