I.N.D.I.A. bloc may knock door of judiciary against electoral roll revision: Digvijaya Singh

Patna: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Sunday said all constituents of I.N.D.I.A. bloc may knock the door of judiciary against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll in Bihar if the Election Commission does not accept opposition parties objections about the drive.

Singh accused the NDA government at the Centre of trying to erase the names of poor and marginalised voters from the electoral rolls through SIR ahead of the assembly polls in the state.

"The SIR drive of the EC is a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise poor, tribal, young, flood-affected, and migrant voters in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. All constituents of I.N.D.I.A. bloc may knock the door of judiciary against the ongoing SIR of the electoral roll in Bihar if the EC does not accept the opposition's objections about the drive.

"I met RJD supremo Lalu Prasad ji here on Saturday and requested him to speak to our party president Mallikarjun Kharge over the issue," Singh told reporters here.

Is it possible to conduct house-to-house verification of around eight crore voters within 25 days by the ECI in Bihar, he asked.

"I once again repeat that the drive is an attempt to snatch the voting rights of people of Bihar in big numbers, especially poor, farmers, labourers, socially marginalised and oppressed classes by making them ineligible to vote. It will be a sheer injustice to the majority of the voters of Bihar. This will adversely affect BJP also," he said.

The SIR drive has been launched just a few months before the state polls, he said, adding, "The EC should have taken the opinion of all political parties before launching this drive." Criticising the NDA government in the state, Singh said, "The state of education is in a very pathetic condition in Bihar. The NDA government has ruined the education system in Bihar…the state has the worst dropout rates in the country. A large number of government schools in the state are running without electricity, teachers, computers, or libraries." He alleged that around 2,637 government schools in the state operate with only one teacher, while 2.91 lakh students are enrolled in these schools and 117 schools have no students at all, yet 544 teachers are still posted there.

"Bihar has the lowest number of higher educational institutions per lakh population in the country. According to data provided by the authorities concerned, there are just 37 universities, 1,092 colleges, and 315 standalone institutes, totaling 1,387 institutions. That means the state has only seven colleges per lakh population, compared to the national average of 30 — the lowest in India," he claimed.

Under the NDA rule, there is a massive racket of scams in recruitment and competitive exams in Bihar. "Over the past seven years, more than 10 major exam paper leaks took place in the state, that includes NEET paper leak case and BPSC teacher recruitment scam," he said.