Gurgaon: Election Commission, for the third time, has extended the deadline for hearings on notices and disposal of claims and objections under the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Haryana to Nov 20. The final roll will now be published on Nov 30 instead of Nov 6.So far, 12,754 voters in Gurgaon district have been found ineligible during hearings and are likely to be deleted from the final roll. Gurgaon assembly constituency accounts for the most, at 7,142, followed by Badshapur with 3,262 and Sohna with 2,327. In Pataudi, only 23 voters were found ineligible.The extension comes amid a heavy backlog in the district, where 4,53,079 voters were issued notices asking them to submit documents establishing their eligibility. The notices followed discrepancies that emerged while linking their details with the electoral roll of the previous intensive revision. Badshapur generated the most notices, at 1,83,831, followed by Gurgaon with 1,51,669, Sohna with 81,174 and Pataudi with 58,803.The district received 40,563 Form 6 applications seeking inclusion in the electoral roll. As of Oct 28, 1,091 Form 6 applications, 565 Form 7 applications and 517 Form 8 applications were awaiting decisions by electoral registration officers (EROs).Hearings on notices, photo updates and related decisions were also pending. Of 10,25,501 photographs uploaded during the exercise, 8,16,479 have been approved by booth-level officers, while another 4,02,556 cases are pending at the ERO level.Deputy commissioner and district election officer Uttam Singh said the extra time would allow voters to submit documents and EROs to dispose of outstanding cases. He said the deadline had been extended to facilitate voters and keep the roll accurate. He urged residents to check their names and those of eligible family members in the list, and to submit the relevant forms and supporting documents wherever inclusion, deletion or correction was needed.The revision has sharply reduced the district’s electorate. Gurgaon had around 15.55 lakh voters before SIR, but the draft roll published on July 31 had about 11.01 lakh. The fall of roughly 4.54 lakh voters is nearly 29% of the pre-SIR count.Gurgaon assembly constituency, which had 4.5 lakh voters before SIR, lost 1.78 lakh names, leaving 2.71 lakh on the draft roll. In Badshahpur, the electorate fell from 5.41 lakh to 3.66 lakh after 1.75 lakh names were deleted. Sohna’s fell from 3.03 lakh to 2.45 lakh after 57,908 deletions, and Pataudi’s from 2.59 lakh to 2.19 lakh after 40,303 deletions.The revised schedule gives authorities 10 more days beyond the earlier Nov 10 deadline for claims and objections. Final publication has been pushed back by 24 days.
