Election Commission announces third phase of SIR in 16 States, including Karnataka

So far, SIR had been carried out in 10 States and three UTs.

New Delhi: Karnataka and 18 other states and union territories will undergo Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the third phase of exercise in a staggered manner starting on May 30 and culminating with the publication of the final voter list between September and December.

The process will be undertaken in different states on different dates, as around 3.94 lakh Booth Level Officers (BLOs) assisted by 3.42 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by parties will go house-to-house to verify 36.73 crore voters during the enumeration phase.

For Karnataka, the qualifying date of SIR has been fixed on October 1. While the preparation, training and printing of enumeration forms will be undertaken between June 20 and 29 in Karnataka, the house to house visits by Booth Level Officers will be between June 30 and July 29.

The publication of draft electoral rolls has been fixed for August 5 in Karnataka while people can file claims and objections between August 5 and September 4.

Notices will be issued to dispose of claims and objections will be between September August 5 to October 3. The final rolls will be published on October 7.

In the third phase, 16 states and three union territories -- Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur, Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Telangana, Punjab, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Delhi, Nagaland and Tripura -- will undergo SIR.

Thirteen states and union territories have undergone SIR in the first two phases and around 5.18 crore votes have been deleted, inviting criticism from the Opposition and civil society which had claimed that the exercise is based on exclusion of voters. Owing to legal issues, the SIR was not conducted in Assam.

The schedule of SIR Phase-III has been fixed keeping in view the common field machinery with the ongoing house listing of Census, the EC said.

With this, the SIR will cover the entire country except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. "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 EC said.

"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 CEC Gyanesh Kumar on the launch of SIR Phase III in 16 States and 3 UTs," he said.

The EC said the SIR is a participative exercise involving all stakeholders including electors, political parties and election officials and requested all 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 parties.