EC begins massive Special Intensive Revision drive in Bihar

Notwithstanding the mounting criticism from the Opposition that the Government was trying to enforce the NRC through backdoors, the EC clarified the drive, also called Special Intensive Revision (SIR), has begun as mandated by the Constitution under Article 326.

Patna: The Election Commission on Sunday kick-started the massive special drive for electoral roll revision in Bihar for the existing 7.7 crore voters in the State.

Notwithstanding the mounting criticism from the Opposition that the Government was trying to enforce the NRC (National Register of Citizens) through backdoors, the EC clarified the drive, also called Special Intensive Revision (SIR), has begun as mandated by the Constitution under Article 326.

“The Constitution of India is supreme. All citizens, political parties and the EC follow the Constitution. The SIR has begun in Bihar for verifying the eligibility of each elector with full participation of everyone,” said the EC.

The exercise began on Sunday with the voters being given an enumeration form by the poll panel officers where one has to submit the name, date of birth, mobile and the names of the parents correctly.

After the Opposition parties raised a hue and cry that the move was aimed to disenfranchise the poor voters as they may not be able to produce their birth certificate, the EC clarified that birth certificates and mobile numbers were optional, not mandatory.

Tough task

The huge exercise of verifying each and every voter, around 7.7 crore in Bihar (which has a sizeable population of around 13 crore) is quite challenging for the EC.

“We have deployed 77,895 booth level officers (BLO) for this exercise. We have plans to induct an additional 20,603 personnel to accomplish the gigantic task. This will be besides the one lakh volunteers, who will assist the genuine voters who are elderly, infirm or persons with disabilities,” the EC source added.

Once this gigantic exercise is done, the EC will publish a draft electoral roll on August 1. Common voters can verify and lodge complaints till the final voters’ list is prepared in September. The Assembly election for the 243-member House in Bihar is slated to be held in October and November this year.

Bihar on Sunday, thus, became the first State in India where the EC started the SIR, primarily aimed at weeding out the bogus voters.

Polls Apart

• EC kicks off SIR in Bihar’s 38 districts.

• Around 78,000 BLOs involved in conducting door-to-door survey of 7.7 crore voters.

• Once done, the draft electoral roll of Bihar will be published on Aug 1 for corrections.

• EC has clarified that residents can submit their enumeration forms without any documentary proof, but should be self-verified and ticked as correct.

• Another EC clarification is that neither mobile number nor date of birth is mandatory to be submitted.

• The final voters’ list will be published in September.

• Assembly elections in Bihar are slated for October and November this year.

• The term of the present Assembly ends on November 22.