Get ready for SIR rollout by September 30: Election Commission tells State poll officers
The Election Commission (EC) has directed its state election officers to be prepared for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by September 30, signaling that the voter list cleanup exercise could begin as early as October–November.
According to officials, during a recent conference of state chief electoral officers (CEOs) in New Delhi, the EC top brass instructed them to gear up for the SIR rollout within the next 10 to 15 days. To ensure clarity, however, September 30 was set as the formal deadline.
State CEOs have been asked to keep the voter rolls from the last SIR ready. Several state CEOs have already put up the voter lists published after their last SIR on their websites.
The website of the Delhi CEO has the voter list from 2008, when the last intensive revision took place in the national capital. In Uttarakhand, the last SIR took place in 2006, and the electoral roll from that year is now on the state CEO’s website.
The last SIR in states will serve as the cut-off date, just as the 2003 voter list of Bihar is being used by the EC for intensive revision. Most states had the last SIR between 2002 and 2004 and have nearly completed mapping of current electors with those as per the last intensive revision.
The EC has announced that after Bihar, the SIR will be conducted across the country. Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are due in 2026.
The primary goal of this exercise is to weed out illegal foreign migrants by verifying place of birth records. The move assumes significance in the wake of a crackdown in various states on illegal foreign migrants, including from Bangladesh and Myanmar.