The copy of a hearing notice received by a voter mentions the hearing time as 00.00.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
After learning that his entire family had received notices for being unable to map themselves to the 2002 electoral rolls, Vinod (name changed), who is based in Delhi while his family lives in Bengaluru, went to “submit documents against the notice”, only to realise that the hearing for his family had been scheduled for midnight, at 12 a.m.Unable to comprehend how a hearing could be scheduled at that hour, he contacted his Booth Level Officer (BLO), but his attempts were futile.Confusion and cases such as these have left electors across the city struggling to understand the process, with many complaining that they had provided correct details, but received notices either because of errors made by the BLO while preparing the draft roll or, in some cases, despite there being no mistake at all.However, in most cases, people have been unable to reach their BLOs or Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), whose information is mentioned in their EPIC details as well as on the enumeration forms. This has left people rushing to ward offices and polling stations to find out when and where their hearings are scheduled and to collect their notices.While the notice list is now public, the absence of details such as the hearing date, venue and time has made little difference for many electors, who are still forced to go in person to find out their status. Moreover, the lists are still not available at polling stations and hearing venues where people are going to check their status.
