Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S. Chokkalingam has made key suggestions on the ECINet software used in the Special Comprehensive Revision (SCRD) process of the voters' list. He has asked local election officials to be given the opportunity to use their legal powers in the software as well. He wrote a letter to the top officials of the Central Election Commission (EC) on September 24.

Chokkalingam suggested a total of five changes. He has asked for the power to be given to the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to exempt voters who have submitted valid documents from personal investigation. He has suggested that other evidence should be provided along with the 13 documents mentioned in the SCRD notices. He said that groups like tribals, homeless people and sex workers may not have the documents in the list.

He also asked for the EROs to be given the opportunity to resolve the 'logical discrepancy' cases identified by ECINet instead of sending them to the district level officials. Issues like names not matching with the details of parents and grandparents in the previous SCRD voters' list are being identified as logical discrepancies. He suggested that uploading the 'Extract of Last Sir' document should not be mandatory in such cases. He

also asked for clear FAQs and written guidelines to the EROs. He said that complete details on notices, submission of documents, investigation and resolution of cases should be included in it.

The EC has also taken some decisions on these issues. It has been announced that voters identified as logical discrepancies do not need to appear in person for the investigation. It has been said that BLOs can go to their homes and collect documents and upload them on ECINet. It has been decided to constitute a committee headed by the Senior Deputy Election Commissioner to review the software.