EC to announce nationwide dates for SIR in a press conference today at 4:15 PM; Details inside
The first phase will involve SIR in 10 to 15 states.
New Delhi: The Election Commission (ECI) will announce a nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) today. The Commission will provide this information at a press conference at 4:15 p.m. The first phase will involve SIR in 10 to 15 states. These will be states where assembly elections are scheduled within the next year. Assembly elections are scheduled in Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal in 2026.
An Election Commission official stated that SIR will not be conducted in states where local body elections are scheduled. This is because lower-level employees will be busy with those elections and will not be able to find time for SIR. SIR will be conducted in these states after the elections.
State Chief Electoral Officers Meeting
The Commission recently held two meetings with state Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) to finalise the framework for implementing SIR. Many CEOs have uploaded the voter lists released after their last SIR on the respective state websites.
Delhi’s 2008 voter list is available on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi. The SIR was conducted in 2008. Uttarakhand, where the last SIR was conducted in 2006, now has the voter list on the state CEO’s website. Bihar also recently conducted voter verification. The final data was released on October 1.
The final SIR will serve as the cut-off date
The final SIR will serve as the cut-off date for states, just as the Election Commission used the 2003 voter list for Bihar for the SIR. In most states, the last SIR of voter lists was conducted between 2002 and 2004.
Most states have almost completed matching the current voters with the last SIR conducted in their respective states or union territories. The primary objective of the SIR is to weed out foreign illegal immigrants by verifying their place of birth. This move is significant in light of crackdowns on illegal immigrants in various states, including Bangladesh and Myanmar.
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