States push deadlines on SIR rolls
Several States have pushed forward dates for phase three of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter list from 11 to 28 days to publish their respective final electoral rolls citing various reasons.
On May 14, the Election Commission of India (ECI)had rolled out phase three of SIR in 16 States and three Union Territories involving 36.73 crore voters in a staggered manner.
The States and UTs where the SIR was rolled out are Delhi, Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Telangana, Punjab, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Tripura, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
According to available details, Maharashtra has the largest extension where the final roll has been pushed from September 7 to November 4, a 28-day delay.
Karnataka and Delhi have both received 20-day extensions, moving the final roll publication date to October 27. Telangana has an 18-day extension, with the final roll now scheduled for October 19.
Odisha has a 15-day extension, from September 6 to September 21.
Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab each have comparatively smaller but identical 11-day extensions.
During phase two of SIR too, the schedule had seen frequent changes owing to different reasons.
As the ECI was preparing for SIR in Bihar, its officials had claimed that several nationals from Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar were found by its grassroots level functionaries.
But eventually, the poll authority did not share any numbers or proof of such people who were not eligible to be on the voters’ list.
Opposition parties had dubbed the ECI’s claims as a ploy to carry out SIR to target electors not aligned to the BJP and its allies.
