Only half of Bengaluru voters mapped; officials blame urban apathy | Bengaluru News

Bengaluru: Even after more than two months of sustained efforts, just over half of Bengaluru’s voters have been mapped by authorities ahead of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Karnataka. According to officials, only 54.3% of voters were covered during the pre-SIR exercise carried out by city corporations on behalf of the Election Commission.Authorities have attributed the slow progress to several factors, including urban apathy, the unavailability of residents during weekdays, and significant changes in the city’s residential landscape over the past 24 years.The mapping exercise is being conducted by booth-level officers (BLOs), who visit households to verify the voter list from 2002 against the updated list for 2025. The SIR was last conducted in Karnataka in 2002. As part of the process, voters listed in 2002 are being verified, and their next generation is being recorded as progeny.“The city has grown leaps and bounds since 2002. Many residents have moved in from other states and become voters here. However, we require information on where they voted in 2002, and we also map their parents as ancestors in the respective constituencies in those states,” Amaresh H, additional commissioner (revenue), Bengaluru North City Corporation, said.BNCC has been leading in the pre-SIR mapping efforts, with commissioner Pommala Sunil Kumar as the assistant district electoral officer (ADEO), Bengaluru North. A total of seven assembly constituencies are covered by ADEO (North), with a total voter count of over 23 lakh.A Greater Bengaluru Authority official said the mapping in Bengaluru is being supervised by four additional district electoral officers for Bengaluru Urban, Central, North, and South. “The exercise is not related to the upcoming city corporation elections. Corrections related to ward-wise distribution of voters will be taken up by the state election commission. Close to 9,000 personnel are working on the exercise in the city. Most of the BLOs are schoolteachers. Other staff from departments like KGID, treasury, and Bescom have also been deputed for the exercise,” the official added.Amaresh said the main challenge has been people’s lack of willingness to provide information to the BLOs. “Though they are educated, many urban residents do not understand the importance of such exercises. We have had meetings with residents’ associations to raise awareness,” he added.Many BLOs were asked to conduct special drives on weekends to cover voters who were unavailable during weekdays. As most BLOs are schoolteachers, they are required to conduct the mapping before or after school hours.BOX: Book a call with BLOMapping of voters will continue till the commencement of SIR, which is scheduled for April. Voters who have missed the mapping exercise can alert their BLO using the ‘Book a call with BLO’ facility on the voter services portal of the EC’s website, voters.eci.gov.in, where they must enter their EPIC number. MSID:: 129635537 413 |