SIR across India soon? EC reviews preparedness for voter roll revision
The meeting, held at the India International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Management (IIIDEM) in New Delhi, was inaugurated by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in the presence of Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday held a conference of Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of all states and Union Territories to review preparedness for the upcoming nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The exercise will be carried out in a phased manner across the country.
The meeting, held at the India International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Management (IIIDEM) in New Delhi, was inaugurated by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in the presence of Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
Detailed presentation by CEO of Bihar
During the conference, the Commission assessed the readiness of state CEO offices for the SIR. A detailed presentation was made by the CEO of Bihar on strategies, challenges and best practices to help other states learn from their experience. Bihar was the first state where SIR was carried out by the EC.
The CEOs presented data on the number of electors, the qualifying date of the last SIR, and the status of digitisation and uploading of electoral rolls on state CEO websites.
Need for ease of document submission
The Commission reiterated the need for ease of document submission to ensure all eligible citizens are included in the rolls while ineligible names are excluded. The status of appointment and training of district election officers (DEOs), electoral registration officers (EROs), assistant EROs, booth level officers (BLOs) and booth level agents (BLAs) was also reviewed.
According to the Commission, the process of document collection and state-wise SIR will begin at least three months before the announcement of assembly elections, as per rules.