The Election Commission of India (ECI) has revised the schedule for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Delhi and Punjab.
For the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, with July 1 as the qualifying date, the draft electoral roll will now be published on August 17, while the final electoral roll will be published on October 19.
For Punjab, with October 1 as the qualifying date, the draft electoral roll will be published on August 13, and the final electoral roll will be published on October 12.
What is Special Intensive Revision?
The Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll is an exercise being conducted by the Election Commission of India in Bihar just a few months before the assembly election.
As per the ECI, the aim of the exercise is to include eligible voters in the voters list and exclude the ineligible voters from the list before the election in the state.
This is also done to ensure that the dead, absentee, and shifted voters are removed from the electoral roll.
However, how the ECI will decide the fate of the approx. 7.9 crore voters in Bihar are raising questions, since they have very limited time to finish the mammoth exercise.
They have to publish the final list by 1 August, and the exercise began on 25 June.
So effectively, a one-month deadline is too short to complete such an exercise.
Opposition parties and general voters are raising concerns about this short time window.
