After the Election Commission of India (ECI) declared on September 26 that hearings would not be held for voters served notices in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls, the Maharashtra Election Commission directed Booth Level Officers (BLOs) on Wednesday to immediately inform residents who have already been served notices not to appear for hearings on the given dates.In a virtual meeting on Tuesday, the state Election Commission informed officers across the state that as per ECI’s September 26 decision, BLOs must visit voters’ houses instead of calling them for hearings.Manohar Parkar, Joint Chief Electoral Officer, issued a letter on Wednesday reiterating the instructions. The letter also stated that when giving notices, BLOs should write “No need to be present for the hearing” on them.Before deleting a voter, sufficient time should be given, and help of local political party representatives should be sought. Pune District Collector Jitendra Dudi said the Election Commission clarified that only written orders should be followed and no oral instructions were to be given.Must Read | Maharashtra SIR after Express investigation: Bombay HC moved over ‘unilateral administrative orders’, hearing on Oct 22The third phase of the SIR is ongoing in multiple states including Maharashtra. In Pune 13,32,845 residents have notices generated against their names due to no-mapping with the 2002 voter roll or ‘logical discrepancies’ in their details.The changes followed an investigation by The Indian Express that revealed discord within the commission, with two of its members having recorded objections at least 14 times to changes and decisions taken against their knowledge.The ECI has declared that a hearing may be conducted only under exceptional circumstances if the Electoral Registration Officer deems it necessary, and such hearings will preferably be held online.Few people showing up at centresStory continues below this adAt various hearing centres in Pune, few people who had already been given notices were turning up to submit their documents. Dhanraj Valmiki, Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) at Appasaheb Kulkarni Primary School in Gokhalenagar, said that only around 20 people came to the centre on September 30. On September 28, more than 50-60 people had arrived at the centre.AERO Smita Patil situated at the Bibwewadi Ward Office said that instructions had been provided the previous night not to call residents for hearings and BLOs were informing residents of this.Also Read | No party flags, only Tricolour – How Thackeray cousins plan march against EC, SIRConfusion still present on groundHowever, confusion was still present amongst officers and citizens. One AERO from the Parvati Assembly constituency said, “The instructions are changing frequently. When there were so many problems in the previous phase of the SIR, these things should have been considered beforehand and decided. The BLOs are going house-to-house now, but who knows that the instructions might change again in two days.”Story continues below this adAir Vice Marshal (retd) Manmohan Bahadur received a notice for no mapping. He claims that he had submitted his father’s 2002 voter ID details while filling his SIR enumeration form. “The lady (BLO) had filled up those details of my father from 2002 SIR,” he told The Indian Express.On Tuesday, the senior officer’s BLO called him to a school and handed him a notice stating he was unmapped to the 2002 voter roll. The notice says that he must come for a hearing to the centre in the Hadapsar assembly constituency on October 6.After seeing news reports on September 30 that BLOs are supposed to visit the electors to collect required documents, he took to X (Twitter) to exclaim that this was untrue because his BLO had asked him to appear for a hearing. He told The Indian Express that his BLO had not told him by evening not to appear for the hearing.