The Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will be conducting house-to-house survey for verification during the process of this intensive revision
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday issued instructions for holding Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar with July 1 as the qualifying date. To avoid controversies regarding voter list, the ECI has sought “active involvement” of all political parties in the process by appointing their Booth Level Agents (BLAs) in all polling booths.
“The active participation of BLAs would ensure that discrepancies, if any, are resolved at the preparation stage itself, thereby reducing the instances of filing claims, objections and appeals. It may be underscored that both, the electors and the political parties, are the most important stakeholders in any electoral process and it is only with their full participation that an exercise of such magnitude can be conducted smoothly and successfully,” the ECI said.
The objective of an intensified revision is to ensure that the names of all eligible citizens are included in the Electoral Roll (ER) so as to enable them to exercise their franchise, no ineligible voter is included in the electoral rolls and also to introduce complete transparency in the process of addition or deletion of electors in the electoral rolls, the ECI said in a statement.
Various reasons such as rapid urbanization, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths and inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants have necessitated the conduct of an intensive revision so as to ensure integrity and preparation of error-free electoral rolls, the poll body added. The last intensive revision for Bihar was conducted in 2003.
The Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will be conducting house-to-house survey for verification during the process of this intensive revision. “While conducting the special revision, the ECI shall be scrupulously adhering to the Constitutional and legal provisions regarding eligibility to be registered as a voter and disqualifications for registration in an electoral roll which are clearly laid down in Article 326 of the Constitution of India and Section 16 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, respectively,” ECI said.
“The eligibility conditions to enrol as an elector were already verified by the ERO to his or her satisfaction. Now, to ensure complete transparency, it would be necessary that the documents on the basis of which such satisfaction of ERO is arrived at, are also uploaded in ECINET as the current level of technology enables so,” ECI added.
However, these documents shall be accessible to authorized election officials only keeping in view the privacy issues, the poll body clarified. In case of any claims and objections raised by any political party or an elector, the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) would inquire into the same before Election Registration Officers’s (ERO) satisfaction is arrived at. Under Section 24 of the Act, an appeal against the order of ERO can also be made to the District Magistrate and the Chief Electoral Officer.
Election officers have been directed to take care that genuine electors, particularly old, sick, Persons with Disabilities (PwD), poor and other vulnerable groups are not harassed and are facilitated to the extent possible, including through deployment of volunteers.
