NEW DELHI, March 12 -- The Delhi government on Thursday directed officials not to assign additional work to staff deployed as booth-level officers for the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, and stressed the need to complete the exercise on time. A circular issued by the Department of Social Welfare directed all district social welfare officers and heads of institutions to ensure that officials deployed as BLOs perform their election-related duties daily after office or

school hours.

The circular said that the direction follows communication from the Election Commission authorities regarding preparatory work for the special intensive revision of electoral rolls expected to begin in April this year.

The preparatory phase includes verification and mapping of electoral rolls, which officials described as a crucial exercise ahead of the revision.

"The officials assigned as BLOs should not be burdened with any additional work after office hours so that election-related duties are carried out without disruption and in strict compliance with guidelines," the circular said.

Meanwhile, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has also written to the Delhi government seeking exemption for around 7,500 school teachers deployed as BLOs from Census-related duties.

In a communication to the divisional commissioner, the CEO's office said the Election Commission of India had informed that the SIR of electoral rolls is expected to begin from April this year, and preparatory work for the exercise needs to be completed

at the earliest.

As part of the preparation, mapping of electors in the last year's electoral roll with records from 2002 is currently underway. Officials said this is a crucial step before the start of the revision process and needs to be completed in a

time-bound manner.

At the same time, Census-related work is also likely to begin in the national capital shortly. Officials said the Delhi government is preparing for the house-listing and housing phase of Census 2027, which is scheduled to begin from April 15. Over 40,000 employees are expected to undergo field training for the Census exercise in the coming days, officials said.

A senior official said the house-listing phase is expected to conclude by June and cover the entire Capital. Delhi has 13,033 polling stations and around 7,500 teachers deployed as BLOs and supervisors.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.