Ranchi: The electoral machinery in Jharkhand has kept its doors open to voter applications even after the Sept 30 deadline, as officials race to digitise forms and clear claims.The claims and objections period ran from Aug 5 to Sept 30. Applications received during the period are to be disposed of by Oct 14, while the final electoral roll is scheduled for publication on Oct 19.Giridih is among districts where officials have launched extended camps to collect and digitise voter forms.An Oct 1 order issued by the assistant electoral registration officer-cum-circle officer in Giridih directed BLO supervisors, computer operators and election personnel to attend special camps from Oct 3 to 13. Teams were assigned electoral part clusters and instructed to collect and digitise Forms 6, 7 and 8.Form-6 is used for new enrolment, Form-7 for deletion and Form-8 for correction or shifting of entries. The Giridih plan covers electoral parts 1 to 275 over 11 working days, with camps at the district collectorate, SIO office at New Barganda, labour welfare office, Nagar Bhawan, panchayat bhawans, a middle school, an anganwadi centre and the circle office.A bulletin issued on Saturday recorded 12,29,268 applications across the state — 7,27,252 Form-6, 113 Form-6A, 13,696 Form-7 and 4,80,016 Form-8. Forms 6 and 8 together accounted for more than 98% of the total.“New electors are being identified as part of an outreach programme to accommodate left-out voters who failed to submit applications with the required documents before the deadline,” chief electoral officer (CEO) K Ravi Kumar said.On Friday alone, 8,191 applications were recorded; Giridih had crossed 1.17 lakh.Kumar said additional manpower was being deployed to digitise the backlog of physical forms and ensure an inclusive electoral roll. Eligible citizens, he added, would be accommodated despite delays in submitting applications.
