The Special Intensive Revision in Bihar is supposed to be completed before 25th June, and the Election Commission on Saturday confirmed that they have built direct connections with the electors to finish the process as soon as possible. The constitutional body has also stated that 20,000 additional booth-level officers have been recruited to complete the enumeration process, and that over 80 per cent of people have already completed the enumeration by submitting the forms.
As per reports, special efforts are made to ensure the inclusion of senior citizens and persons with disability. The commission has also informed that the process is being carried out on time and will be completed before the deadline. The ECI statement said that 77,895 BLOs were originally involved in the process, and now an additional 20,000 officers have been appointed as the commission tries to complete the forms before 25th July. The commission has made sure that the process is done by a door-to-door campaign to include all electors, for which over 1.5 lakh booth agents were appointed by different parties.
Earlier this Thursday, the Supreme Court said that the ECI is constitutionally mandated to do the SIR exercise in Bihar and even in other states, but the question of timing is highly suspicious. The bench headed by Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymala Bagchi gave a green light to continue the process but mandated that the ECI must allow “Adhar cards, ration cards, and voter ID cards” as voters’ identity proof.
The revised elector’s list will be published on September 30 and the ECI has informed the PTI that migrants from Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar are found while conducting the process. It has further ensured that the names of migrants settled illegaly will be removed from the revised list. It also confirmed that a verification drive will be conducted starting from August 1 to verify the citizenship of those marked as illegal migrants.
Currently, the exercise is limited in Bihar as the state will have assembly elections in November, but the ECI has stated that the SIR will soon be conducted for other states to remove illegal migrants from the official electoral list. States like Kerala, Assam, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal will have the process done in 2026.
Though constitutional, the process has become controversial as the opposition leaders are saying that this is a move to disenfranchise large number of citizens and violates human rights.
