Ranchi: For Sarita Devi (26), a daily wager, the 10-km journey from Jagannathpur to Ranchi Collectorate on Tuesday was supposed to help resolve discrepancies in her voter details. Instead, the young mother found herself struggling to understand a process she knew little about and unable to produce the documents officials sought.Carrying her one-year-old toddler, Sarita appeared before the Election Commission-appointed officer with whatever documents she had.“My BLO asked me to come to the Collectorate with the documents I have, so I arrived with electricity bills, voter and Aadhaar cards. But the officials said these documents will not help and I need to produce documents such as the 2003 electoral roll carrying my father’s name, a caste certificate or a matriculation certificate, and I have none,” Sarita said.Like her, Hiramani Gudi (46) of Hatia visited the collectorate on Tuesday for a hearing as she could not be mapped during the enumeration phase.“Although I brought my Aadhaar, voter and ration cards and electricity bills, the officials said the documents are not enough to get me mapped until I produce educational certificates, birth certificate, caste certificate or bank passbook issued before 1987. But I have none,” she said.Like the two, on the second day of hearings under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, the lack of valid documents left many voters anxious and confused as they struggled to understand how they could establish their identity and get their names mapped in the electoral records.At Ranchi Collectorate, where multiple hearing kiosks have been set up to address discrepancies in voter details, people across age groups turned up with documents they believed could support their claims. However, many were left uncertain after learning that the papers they had brought were not among the documents prescribed by Election Commission of India (ECI) for the process.Many voters arrived carrying Aadhaar cards and electricity bills, hoping these would be sufficient to resolve the discrepancies. But they were left shocked after knowing that neither Aadhaar nor electricity bills qualify as valid documents to resolve the discrepancies.Pritam Kumar (27), a Hindpiri resident, said his name did not appear on the draft rolls published earlier in Aug despite his duly filling the enumeration form. However, Pritam was lucky to have his matriculation certificate to submit on the hearing day.“In my family there are six voters and except me, all appeared on the list. My BLO asked me to appear with matriculation certificate to get the correction done. I hope my name will appear on the final list,” he said.
