NewDelhi: The Election Commission of India has launched the third phase of the ‘Special Intensive Revision’ (SIR), under which the exercise of updating the voter rolls has been extended to several states and Union Territories across the country. The objective of this initiative is to enhance the accuracy of the electoral rolls through large-scale, grassroots-level verification and by working in coordination with election officials.
States covered in Phase 3 of SIR
As part of Phase 3 of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the exercise will be conducted across 16 States and 3 Union Territories (UTs), covering most of the country. The States and UTs include Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (DNH & DD), Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana, and Uttarakhand.
“Election Commission of India has directed the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in 16 States and 3 Union Territories (UTs) as per Annexure-I,” ECI said in a statement.
States excluded from Phase 3 SIR
However, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh have been excluded from this phase. The schedule for these three States/Union Territories will be announced later, after the completion of Phase II of the Census and in view of weather conditions in snow-bound and higher-altitude regions.
“The schedule of SIR Phase-III has been fixed keeping in view the common field machinery with the ongoing house listing of Census. With this, the SIR of Electoral Rolls will cover the entire country in Phase-III except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & 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,” ECI said.
The ECI further noted that Phase 3 has been planned in coordination with the ongoing house listing operations of the Census, and this phase will complete nationwide coverage of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), except for the three deferred regions.
“During SIR Phase-III, 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. State/UT-wise details of BLOs and BLAs are at Annexure-II,” ECI said.
“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,” ECI said.
“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.
Phases 1 and 2 of SIR
The Election Commission of India has completed the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive in 10 States and 3 Union Territories across the first two phases, including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Goa. The Union Territories covered were Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep.
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