EC To Conduct SIR Phase-III Of Electoral Rolls In 16 States, 3 UTs

New Delhi : The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 16 states and three union territories will take place in a phased manner from May 30. The Election Commission of India said the schedule of SIR Phase 3 has been fixed keeping in view the common field machinery with the ongoing house listing of Census. 

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday said all efforts will be made to ensure only eligible voters are included in the electoral rolls and no ineligible names make it to the fresh list. 

“I appeal to all electors to enthusiastically participate in the Phase III of Special Intensive Revision (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,” said Mr Gyanesh Kumar on the launch of SIR Phase III. 

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. The ECI had earlier asked these states and UTs to prepare for the SIR exercise. 

Schedule for 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. “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,” the ECI said. 

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 while a "special revision" was conducted in Assam. 

During SIR phase 3, over 3.94 lakh Booth Level Officers will go house-to-house to 36.73 crore electors, assisted by 3.42 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties during the Enumeration Phase. 

“SIR is a participative exercise involving all stakeholders including electors, political parties and election officials. ECI requests all political parties to appoint BLAs for each polling booth, in order to ensure full participation of political parties so that SIR is conducted with complete transparency and full participation of political parties. In the first two phases of the SIR in 13 States/UTs covering nearly 59 crore electors as on the date of order of SIR in the respective States/UTs, over 6.3 lakh BLOs and 9.2 lakh BLAs appointed by political parties were involved in various stages of the SIR process,” the ECI said.