The Election Commission (EC) said Sunday that the initial phase of the printing and distribution of the enumeration forms to registered voters for the Bihar electoral roll revision was “almost complete” and that 21.46% of the filled-out forms had been submitted.
“The initial phase of the exercise, during which enumeration forms were to be printed and distributed, is almost complete with the forms being made available to all electors who were available,” EC Deputy Director P Pawan said in a statement.
However, there is a significant backlog in the number of forms uploaded to the poll body’s ECINET database, with only around 7.25% of the 1.69 crore forms now up on the system. “The partially filled forms are also available for download on the portal as well as on the ECINET app. The filled forms can be uploaded by the electors themselves on the app,” Pawan said.
Till 6 pm Sunday, enumeration forms of 1.69 crore (21.46%) of nearly 7.9 crore electors enrolled as on June 24 had been received, according to EC data. “In the last 24 hours, 65.32 lakh enumeration forms have been collected. There are still 19 days to go for the last date for submission of forms,” Pawan noted.
Another dataset provided by the office of the Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) showed that as of July 5, 23.9 lakh forms were uploaded on the ECINET system, of which Booth-Level Officers (BLOs) put up 23.14 lakh forms, while 75,789 voters directly uploaded them online.
Vaishali tops the list in the collective submissions (BLO and citizen-initiated uploads) with over 1.78 lakh forms submitted. It is followed by Patna (1.69 lakh), East Champaran (1.46 lakh), Nalanda (1.37 lakh), and Samastipur (1.05 lakh), according to the CEO data. The bottom-five districts are Lakhisarai (4,674 forms), Buxar (14,415), Kaimur (17,781), Munger (19,532), and Sheohar (22,317).
In terms of collection percentage too, Vaishali tops the list with 25.83% forms collected. It is followed by Supaul (22.46%), Nawada (22.29%), Kaimur (21.98%), and Arwal (20.54%). The lowest collection percentages till now are in Saharsa (6.43%), Katihar (7.54%), Aurangabad (8.18%), Lakhisarai (8.93%), and Madhubani (9.39%).
The EC has said 77,895 BLOs are conducting door-to-door drives to help “electors fill out the enumeration forms” and that in many cases “photographs are being taken for immediate uploads”.
A senior EC official said more than 20,000 additional BLOs had been pressed into service to ensure the timely completion of the drive. “They (BLOs) are being supported by over 1.5 lakh booth-level agents in addition to the four lakh volunteers, including government servants and National Cadet Corps and National Service Scheme members to assist the elderly, persons with disabilities and vulnerable groups,” the official said.
Bihar CEO Vinod Singh Gunjiyaal said the poll panel was actively collaborating with all stakeholders to spread awareness among voters and ensure no eligible voter is left out. A total of 239 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), 963 Assistant EROs, 38 District Election Officers (DEOs), along with the state CEO, are involved in the drive.