PATNA, July 18 -- The state election department has received only 1.5 million applications online for the enrolment of names by electors in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision ( SIR) so far, indicating that the online medium of filling forms, especially by those temporarily staying outside the state, has remained less intense though the election officials maintained the online app had been made more user friendly recently, leading to an increase in submissions. This is just 1.89% of the total 79 million electorate of Bihar. Till Wednesday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said that 69.9 million enumeration forms had been collected, of which 64.7 million had been uploaded, which is 81.96 %. About 5.4 million enumeration forms are yet to be collected with the SIR exercise to conclude on July 25. The districts where the volume of online submission of forms has been high include Kishanganj and adjoining districts in Seemanchal and several districts in north Bihar. Election officials did not specify the reason behind the high volume of online submissions from Kishanganj but many felt migration of people from the bordering district to other states for employment in big numbers could be one. It is also speculated that voters of Kishanganj and adjoining districts, where minority population is high, may have preferred to go online in big number as a safe option to ensure their application and name get logged in the database in the backdrop of apprehensions in bordering districts that officials would scrutinise applications more stringently due to plaints and allegations about presence of illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries. Chief electoral officer, Bihar, Vinod Singh Gunjiyal said, "We have got the figures of online submission of enumeration forms , which is around 15 lakh so far. Yes, Kishanganj has the highest number of online submissions. We do not know the reason behind it," Gunjiyal said. Replying to queries as to why the online submissions were low, the CEO said, "The app previously was a bit complicated when SIR was launched. The IT team has worked on it and made it user friendly and in the last few days, we have witnessed a rise. We have also given advertisements in newspapers and other media to encourage people including those living outside the state temporarily to apply online. We are getting a good response." Though the ECI has prescribed 11 documents as proof to establish date of birth and/or place of birth by electors based on their birth date, the forms so far have revealed that the electors have been less forthcoming in attachment of documents with the forms. Sources said around 50% of the electorate have been covered by their names or relative's name in the 2003 electoral roll, which is being presumed as a base roll as the last SIR was done 22 years back. Among the rest 50%, the percentage of people having attached documents as prescribed is 15-30%. " We are yet to get documents from 60% of the electorate who have not been covered in the 2003 rolls. But we expect to get it once the scrutiny of applications starts," the CEO said. The CEO insisted that the ECI's first priority had been to encourage voters to fill the forms and the process had received tremendous response. The CEO said reports in a section of media, especially in social media, raising apprehension that voters' names would be struck off were all misleading. He said there was a due process for any deletion of names and it was done only after a proper hearing. "The electoral registration officers ( EROs) who are SDM and DCLR rank officials are authorised by law to decide on the entries being made in the rolls after due verification and scrutiny. There would be field inquiries. In case any voter does not provide any document , there are also methods to ascertain whether he is a genuine citizen of the country or not as the EROs are revenue officials who have land records and other records pertaining to citizens in their respective areas," the CEO said. He said the house to house verification by BLOs had revealed that there were a large number of dead voters (whose names still exist in the rolls), those who have shifted permanently from their addresses and those who have names in more than two places. "This figure is substantial. Now after the draft publication of names, we will share all the names of such people block wise/ constituency wise with the recognised political parties and their appointed BLAs so that they could also ascertain such voters through their own ways. There will be total transparency in this process. Only then the deletions would be made as per norms," the CEO said. The ECI recently had given figures indicating that around 35 lakh plus voters have been found, who are either dead, shifted permanently to other places or have their names in more than one place (like a voter registered in his own village and also in the city where he is living). Their is likelihood the names would be deleted as per norms after formalities before the final publication of electoral rolls on 30 September, 2025, The CEO further said that EROs would be checking the forms and in case of such electors having doubtful credentials, a notice would be served to them for a hearing. The CEO said there was still a lack of enthusiasm among urban voters to fill up the forms and did agree that distribution of enumeration forms and collection had been challenging more in urban areas compared to rural areas. "In Patna and other towns, the area per BLO is large. There have been challenges in distribution of forms and locating homes as many of voters have shifted to other localities. This is why we have made municipal commissioners additional district election officers to monitor the distribution and collection of forms along with BLOs and other staff, " the CEO said, adding urban voters who ha not filled their forms should do it before the SIR concluded so that their names appeared in the draft roll. The CEO said blank forms were distributed in many areas of Patna along with pre-filled enumeration forms so that electors could get the forms easily and submit it through collection staff. "Even if one misses to fill the forms, there would be time to apply for inclusion of names by filling up form 6 with declaration later during the claims and objections period. So, there is ample opportunity to include all eligible voters' names in the rolls," the CEO said....