The Election Commission of India (ECI) has indicated that a nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) could begin as early as October or November, asking all the State poll bodies to get ready for the voter list cleanup by September 30.
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 move assumes significance in the wake of a crackdown in various States on illegal foreign migrants, including from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
According to officials, at a conference of State Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) here earlier this month, the ECI top brass asked them to be ready for the SIR rollout in the next 10 to 15 days. But for the sake of greater clarity, the deadline of September 30 was set.
The CEOs have been told to keep voter lists of their States, published after 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.
The EC has said that after Bihar, SIR will be carried out in the entire country. Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are due in 2026. At a meeting, the CEOs suggested documents for the purpose of ensuring that no eligible citizen is left out of the electoral roll and no ineligible person is included in it.
The primary aim of the intensive revision is to weed out foreign illegal migrants by checking their place of birth.
