District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Dr Himanshu Agarwal has urged all political parties in the district to appoint Booth Level Agents (BLAs) for the upcoming Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to ensure transparency.
Presiding over a meeting with representatives of various political parties, Dr Agarwal stated that the Election Commission of India aims to include every eligible citizen in the voter list while removing ineligible entries. Warning that double voting was a punishable offence carrying up to one year of imprisonment, he sought full cooperation from the parties during the revision exercise.
The DC announced that the SIR process in Punjab would be conducted from June 25 to July 24, during which Booth Level Officers (BLOs) would carry out door-to-door voter verification. For this exercise, the administration had deployed 1,786 BLOs, 185 supervisors, eight Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and 16 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) across Patiala district. Their training would take place from June 15 to June 24.
Dr Agarwal noted that the current revision was based on the 2003 SIR exercise, adding that the administration had already reconciled 82.82 per cent of Patiala’s voter lists with the 2003 records.
He further shared that the toll-free helpline number 1950 and a district-level help desk would remain operational throughout the process. The meeting was attended by representatives from several political parties, including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Indian National Congress (INC) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
