The Election Commission on Thursday announced the conduct of Phase III of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls covering 16 states and 3 Union territories involving 36.73 crore voters in a phased manner beginning May 30. This would not include Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, the poll body said.
The states and UTs where the SIR will be carried out are Delhi, Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Telangana, Punjab, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Tripura, Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
Punjab, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Telangana are opposition-ruled among the states where the SIR exercise will be held.
“Election Commission of India has directed the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in 16 States and 3 Union Territories (UTs),” it said in a statement.
“With this, the SIR of Electoral Rolls will cover the entire country in Phase-III except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. After considering the completion of Phase-II of the Census in these three State/UTs and due consideration of the weather in the upper reaches/ snow bound areas, SIR schedule for these three State/UTs will be announced later,” it added.
The ECI informed that over 3.94 lakh booth level officers (BLOs) would go house-to-house of 36.73 crore electors during the latest poll roll revision exercise. They would be assisted by 3.42 lakh booth level agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties during the enumeration phase.
The schedule for the SIR in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh will be announced later keeping in view weather conditions in snow-bound areas, the EC said in a statement.
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Once phase 3 is completed, the entire country would be covered except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, it stated.
The schedule of SIR phase 3 has been fixed keeping in view the common field machinery with the ongoing house listing of the ongoing Census exercise.
According to EC, the final electoral rolls of the 16 states and three UTs would be published on different dates this year, beginning with Odisha, Sikkim, Mizoram and Manipur on September 6 and ending with Tripura on December 23.
The final poll roll of Delhi, along with those of Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, would be out on October 7.
The SIR has already been conducted in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. A “special revision” was conducted in Assam.
In his message on the latest phase of SIR, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said, “I appeal to all electors to enthusiastically participate in phase 3 of the SIR and fill their enumeration forms. SIR is being conducted with the objective to ensure that only eligible voters to be included in the electoral roll and no ineligible names to be included.”
