Nationwide SIR on the Horizon: EC Reviews Preparedness With CEOs

New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday held a conference of Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of all States and Union Territories, and assessed the preparedness for the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.This was the third Conference of Chief Electoral Officers this year. The conference was inaugurated by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in the presence of Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.A presentation on the strategies, constraints and best practices adopted was made by the CEO of Bihar so that the CEOs of the rest of the country learn from their experiences, said EC in a press note.”The CEOs provided detailed presentations on the number of Electors, the qualifying date of the last SIR, and the electoral roll in their respective State/UT, as per the last completed SIR. The CEOs also presented the status of digitisation and uploading of the Electoral Roll after the previous SIR on the State/UT CEO website,” the EC said in the note.”They also provided the status of mapping current electors with those as per the last SIR in the State/UT,” it said.To ensure that there is a uniform implementation of the Commission’s initiative to ensure that no polling station has over 1,200 electors, the status of rationalisation of polling stations was also reviewed.The CEOs also provided suggested documents for the purpose of ensuring that no eligible citizen is left out of the Electoral Roll and no ineligible person is included in it. It was reiterated that these documents should promote ease of submission for the eligible citizens. The Commission also reviewed the status of appointment and training of DEOs, EROs, AEROs, BLOs and BLAs, said the EC in the press note.In its order on June 24, the EC had stated that SIR would be conducted across the country.