In the eye of a storm over reports of internal division over the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across states, the Election Commission (EC) met here on Saturday and said all SIR-related decisions were taken unanimously.The EC also defended Form 6 for fresh voter enrolment, saying its validity had been upheld by the Supreme Court.For non-SIR period, forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, would continue to be used, the EC said.In this first meeting of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners SS Sandhu and Vivek Joshi since a media expose, the full commission also issued a slew of measures to ease voter registration under the SIR, and assured mechanisms for greater oversight of ECINET, the digital platform for citizens, which has also been under the scanner for “tight central controls”.While admitting that field officers have role-based access to the ECINET system in accordance with their statutory powers, the EC said a committee headed by a senior Deputy Election Commissioner and including an independent expert from an IIT or IIIT would review ECINET to ensure compliance with the provisions of the relevant Acts and Rules and submit a report to the commission.In important pro-people orders today, the EC extended deadlines for filing of objections and claims under the SIR in Delhi (until October 30) and Maharashtra (until October 12).The period of disposal of notices and claims and objections has been extended till November 30 in Delhi and November 10 in Maharashtra.Further, the EC said Booth Level Officers (BLOs) would ensure doorstep collection of documents from voters who had received notices during the ongoing SIR because of unmapped records or logical discrepancies. “BLOs will visit the homes of such persons for collection of documents and thereafter upload them to ECINET, for decision by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO). Such persons need not be called to the ERO/AERO office for a hearing. Only in exceptional circumstances, as decided by the ERO, the hearing will be held preferably online,” the EC said.It said an elector could authorise any adult family member to attend hearings on their behalf.On the contentious issue of Election Commissioners writing to the Cabinet Secretary, the EC clarified today that the letter (mentioned in a media report) was not related to any policy matter of the commission or IT division.”It was related to the work of an officer on deputation to the EC. The work redistribution orders issued by the officer concerned were not actually implemented after the orders of the two commissioners, and the oversight over the IT division by the Deputy Election Commissioner was never withdrawn,” the statement from the poll panel said.Media reports had claimed Sandhu and Joshi wrote separately to Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan after issuance of a work allocation order within the poll body that “threatened to concentrate the powers” at the EC centrally to add or delete names.The same report also said Sandhu and Joshi objected 14 times in 10 months to decisions on the SIR and said these were issued without their knowledge or recommendation.Strict compliance with commissioners’ directionsFor all commission meetings, an agenda will be circulated in advance and minutes issuedAnnual performance appraisal reports of all officers will be completed by December 31Approval of the commission will be taken for foreign trips of officersAll directions issued by the commissioners to the EC officers shall be meticulously complied with