Pan-India SIR: UP, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala Among 12 States And UTs In Phase 2; EC Details Schedule And Process

EC Press Conference On SIR: The Election Commission of India on Monday announced the phase 2 of the special intensive revision (SIR) to be held in 12 states and union territories.

Speaking at a press conference, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar said that the first phase was completed in Bihar with utmost success and zero appeals.

CEC Kumar said that the enumeration forms for each elector in these 12 states and UTs will be printed on October 27. He said that the mapping of electors based on SIR data from 2001 to 2004 has ben completed.

He said that the last SIR was conducted 21 years ago, between 2001-2004. A huge time has passed and there are issues of frequent migration, double voter id cards, non-removal of dead voters, and wrongful inclusion of foreigners in all these years.

Hence, step-wise SIR in the country will be conducted, the CEC said. He added that eight SIRs have been conducted in the country since 1951.

12 States and UTs

The 12 states and UTs to undergo SIR are Andaman and Nicobar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Surprisingly, Assam, which is also slated for polls next year has been excluded from Phase 2.

Schedule

The electoral roll revision will start on October 28 and conclude on February 7. As part of the schedule, CEC said that Phase-II of SIR in 12 states/UTs will cover 51 crore voters, and the enumeration process will begin on November 4.

House-to-house enumeration will conclude on December 4 and the draft rolls will be published on December 9; final electoral rolls on February 7.

CEC Kumar said, "In the states where SIR will be conducted, electoral rolls will be frozen at midnight, today. Later, voters will be given unique enumeration forms with all details."

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He added that those voters whose names were present in the previous electoral rolls revision data wil not have to provide any document. 

The press briefing comes days after the EC held a two-day conference of Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of the states. During the conference, the poll body directed the CEOs to finalise their preparations for the SIR of the voter lists in their respective States and Union Territories.

According to the press release issued by the poll body, it assessed the progress made on the directions previously issued to the CEOs to map the current electors with the electors as per the last SIR in their respective States and UTs.

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During the conference, the ECI also interacted one-on-one with the CEOs of poll-bound States and UTs, including Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal.

The SIR was recently concluded in Bihar. It took three months for the poll body to conclude the exercise ahead of the Assembly elections. After the SIR, total number of voters in Bihar reduced by 47 lakhs to 7.42 crore.