New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has uploaded the 2003 Electoral Rolls of Bihar on its website and said that the 4.96 crore voters whose details exist on these rolls do not need to submit any documents with their Enumeration Forms (EFs) during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) that is being undertaken in the state.
The children of these 4.96 crore electors will also not have to submit any other document relating to their parents during the process, the ECI has said.
The CEO/DEO/ERO shall make the Electoral Rolls with qualifying date of 01.01.2003 freely available to all BLOs in hard copy, as well as, online on their website for anyone to download and use as documentary evidence while submitting their EF.
“The ease of availability of the 2003 Electoral Rolls of Bihar, would hugely facilitate the ongoing SIR in Bihar as nearly 60 per cent of the total electorate would not have to submit any documents. They have to just verify their details from the 2003 Electoral Rolls and submit the filled-up EF. Both, the electors as well the BLOs, would be able to readily access these details,” the ECI has said.
More importantly, anybody whose name is not in the 2003 Bihar Electoral Rolls can still use its extract rather than providing any other documents for her/his mother or father. Only the relevant extract/details of the 2003 Electoral Rolls would be sufficient. Such electors would have to submit the documents, only for themselves, along with the filled-up EF.
This comes at a time when Opposition parties, including the Congress, RJD, Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress, have opposed the SIR, calling it an attempt by the Centre to impose the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
“It is reiterated that before every election, revision of the electoral roll is mandatory as per Section 21(2)(a) of the Representation of People Act 1950 and Rule 25 of the Registration of Elector Rules 1960. ECI has been conducting annual revisions, intensive as well as summary, for 75 years by now,” the ECI has clarified.
“This exercise is required as the Electoral Roll is always a dynamic list which keeps changing due to deaths, shifting of people due to various reasons such as migration for occupation/education/marriage and addition of new voters who have turned 18. Further, Article 326 of the Constitution specifies the eligibility to become an elector. Only Indian citizens, above 18 years and ordinary residents in that Constituency, are eligible to be registered as an elector,” it has added.
