New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thursday rolled out phase 3 of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 16 states and three Union territories involving 36.73 crore voters in a staggered manner beginning May 30.
The states and UTs where the SIR will be carried out are Delhi, Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Telangana, Punjab,
Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Tripura, Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
Punjab, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Telangana are opposition-ruled among the states where the SIR exercise will be held.
Over 3.94 lakh booth level officers (BLOs) will go house-to-house of 36.73 crore electors during the latest poll roll revision exercise. They will be assisted by 3.42 lakh booth level agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties during the enumeration phase.
The schedule for the SIR in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh will be announced later keeping in view weather conditions in snow-bound areas, the EC said in a statement.
Both Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir are ruled by opposition parties.
Jammu and Kashmir is a Union territory (UT) with the provision of a legislative assembly. Ladakh is another UT, but without a legislature.
Once phase 3 is completed, the entire country except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh will be covered under the SIR.
The schedule of SIR phase 3 has been fixed keeping in view the common field machinery with the ongoing house listing of the ongoing Census exercise.
The final electoral rolls of the 16 states and three UTs will be published on different dates this year, beginning with Odisha, Sikkim, Mizoram and Manipur on September 6 and ending with Tripura on December 23.
The final poll roll of Delhi, along with those of Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, will be out on October 7.
In its instructions to the state chief electoral officers, the EC underlined that for electors whose enumeration forms have not returned, the BLO would identify a probable cause, such as absent, shifted, dead and duplicate entry based on an inquiry from the nearby electors and would note the same.
Following a Supreme Court order issued during the Bihar SIR, the Aadhaar card has been included as the 12th identity document.
