A call centre will be started to address concerns and clear doubts of overseas voters in connection with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State, Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar has said.
Responding to concerns raised by political parties with regard to the SIR and inclusion of overseas voters on the voters’ list, Mr. Kelkar said dedicated staff would be posted at the call centre to answer queries. The CEO’s office was also ready to conduct an awareness campaign among overseas voters and had asked NoRKA to arrange a meeting for the same. An email ID too would be created on which overseas electors could communicate their difficulties.
Call-in programmes could also be held for voters in association with media channels there, he said.
Videos would also be brought out on how to fill the enumeration form. Doubt clearance sessions were also being held.
On the feedback of the parties related to filling the declaration form, Mr. Kelkar assured them that any lack of clarity would be addressed.
District Collectors had readied enumeration forms in Kannada and Tamil. Moreover, voters could also fill in the form in these languages.
BLOs and BLAs
Mr. Kelkar said complaints related to coordination between booth-level officers (BLOs) and booth-level agents (BLAs) would be addressed. Gaps in their training would also be bridged.
He reiterated that no verification would be undertaken during the house-to-house enumeration phase. If at all, only in the second phase would any one of the 12 identification proofs be sought.
On the demand for extending the deadline for the SIR, Mr. Kelkar said the exercise would follow the schedule already announced.
35 lakh enumeration forms
He said District Collectors who were responsible for conducting elections and in-charge of conduct of SIR had been directed to ensure that both were held smoothly without any operational overlap. Nearly 35 lakh enumeration forms had been distributed and nearly half of them returned after being filled, Mr. Kelkar said.
Voter names could also be added after publication of the draft rolls on December 9. All eligible voters will be on the final rolls to be published in February.
He also did not anticipate any difficulties in parties replacing BLAs if need be.
Published – November 08, 2025 08:31 pm IST
