EC asks 22 states, UTs to prepare for final phase of SIR expected in April | India News
New Delhi: The Election Commission On Thursday, it asked 22 states and Union Territories, including Delhi, to complete preparatory work related to Special Intensive Corrections (SIR) at the earliest as the exercise is “expected to begin from April”.Once the exercise is over, all states and union territories will be covered.In a letter to the Chief Electoral Officers of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Ladakh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Trilangpur and Tripurapur. has been The pan-India SIR of the voter list was ordered in June last year.Countering allegations of “vote theft” by the opposition Congress, the Election Commission has made a ‘special amendment’ to the SIR of voter lists in 13 states and union territories and in Assam. It is set to conduct a similar exercise in the remaining 22 states and union territories this year.Although the exercise, which put the EC in the news, was completed in Bihar, it is going on in 12 states and UTs with around 60 crore voters.The remaining 40 crore voters will be included in these 17 states and five Union Territories.In Assam, a ‘Special Amendment’ was completed on 10 February in lieu of SIR.Due to various reasons, nine states and three Union Territories have seen frequent changes in the schedule of SIRs.As in Bihar, political parties have approached the Supreme Court challenging the SIR in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.Recently, TMC president and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee personally appealed to a bench of the Chief Justice of India against the poll roll cleaning exercise in her state.While the EC was preparing for the SIR in Bihar, its officials claimed that several nationals from Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar were found by its grassroots workers.But in the end, the election authorities did not share any number or evidence of people who were not eligible to be in the voters’ list.Opposition parties termed the EC’s demands as a ploy to carry out the SIR to target voters not aligned with the BJP and its allies.
