SIR over, electoral roll for Bihar to be published today

In an intensive revision, the electoral rolls are prepared afresh, as opposed to the summary revisions in which they are updated. Since the advent of digitised electoral rolls, the EC has been conducting special summary revisions annually and before elections.

While announcing the decision, the EC had said in a statement on June 24: “Various reasons such as rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths and inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants have necessitated the conduct of an intensive revision so as to ensure integrity and preparation of error-free electoral rolls.”

As per the SIR order, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) were required to go house-to-house to get enumeration forms filled by all electors. All those added to the rolls after 2003, when the last intensive revision was carried out in Bihar, were required to submit documents establishing their eligibility, including citizenship. All those born after July 1, 1987, were required to submit documents proving their parents’ place and/or date of birth as well.

After the one-month enumeration phase from June 25 to July 25, the draft electoral roll with 7.24 crore names was published on August 1. At that point, the documents of electors had not been taken into account. The period of filing claims and objections as well as submitting documents was from August 1 to September 1. The EC had said that the about 65 lakh names that had been dropped at the draft stage were found to be either dead, permanently shifted, enrolled at multiple places or untraceable.