MARGAO
South Goa District Electoral Officer Egna Cleetus, IAS, has said that about 5.76 lakh enumeration forms ” around 91.23 per cent ” have been returned and digitised in the district.
She said the draft electoral roll will be prepared and published on December 16, after which hearings on claims and objections will be held for a month, till January 15.
Briefing the media, the District Electoral Officer said South Goa district has about 6.32 lakh voters.
“The BLOs distributed the forms during the Special Intensive Revision exercise. Around 5.76 lakh forms have been returned and are being digitised,” she said.
She added that the remaining forms, including those marked as absent or shifted, make up the balance 8.77 per cent.
“We held a meeting with political party representatives and shared a list of absent, shifted and deceased voters with them,” she said.
When asked about claims by a former bureaucrat and convenor of Citizens for Democracy that BLOs were not accepting forms, the officer said there may have been some cases involving migrant voters who were not found at their homes.
“The ECI had given BLOs the option to affix a notice or place the enumeration form under the door if voters were not present. While collecting forms, we took extra care to check whether migrant voters had returned to their native places. This was done as a precaution,” she added.
