New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday announced the rollout of Phase 3 of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters’ list in 16 states, three Union territories, including Maharashtra and Delhi.
The third phase of SIR will be held in: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, DNH & DD (Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu), Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, NCT of Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana, and Uttarakhand.
Once the third phase of SIR is completed, entire country will be covered except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, the EC said on Thursday.
During SIR Phase 3, over 3.94 lakh Booth Level Officers (BLOs) 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, the ECI said in a press statement.
According to the EC schedule, the house-to-house visit by BLOs is slated between May 30 and October 14 this year across the 16 states and UTs, while publication of draft electoral rolls will take place from July 5 till October 21.
SIR is a participative exercise involving all stakeholders including electors, political parties and election officials, the ECI said, requesting 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 poll body said.
SIR is an electoral roll cleansing drive that the EC started with Bihar in June last year, citing concerns about bogus, duplicate, and ineligible voters – including deceased individuals and “illegal immigrants”.
The SIR was launched to remove these entries and ensure the list is accurate and updated, according to EC.
