Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday asserted that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar “purified” the voters’ list after 22 years, and said many new initiatives were being undertaken for the upcoming Assembly polls, which would be replicated across the country in due course.
He announced that poll-bound Bihar will be the first State where the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) ballot will have a larger font and candidates’ photos will appear in colour. Addressing a press conference in Patna, Kumar said the current black-and-white images on EVM ballots make it difficult for voters to identify candidates, even though the election symbols remain clear.
Gyanesh Kumar, who was accompanied by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, addressed the conference before winding up a two-day tour of the State, where he received feedback from representatives of political parties and discussed poll preparedness with officials.
“With the successful completion of SIR, the voters’ list in Bihar has been purified. It is after a gap of 22 years that such a cleansing has taken place. The exercise will now be conducted across the country,” Kumar said. The CEC also spoke of several “initiatives” that were being introduced in polls to the 243-strong Bihar Assembly, which had “38 constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes and another two for Scheduled Tribes”.
These initiatives, “which will be replicated across the country in due course”, include a new standard operating procedure to ensure that EPIC cards are delivered to voters within 15 days of registration, and a mobile deposit facility at polling booths. “To prevent overcrowding of polling stations, it has been decided that no booth shall have more than 1,200 voters. To make the voting exercise easier for the electors, a mobile deposit facility is being introduced at booths,” Kumar said.
