The Election Commission (EC) extended the schedule for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Delhi and the final voter list will be published on October 19. This comes after the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Delhi had asked for more time to complete the extensive verification exercise.
The final electoral roll was expected to be released on October 7 but now the election officials have almost two more weeks to complete it.
The Special Intensive Revision is to make sure that Delhi's electoral rolls are up to date and accurate for future elections. The exercise involves door-to-door verification by Booth Level Officers (BLOs), who verify voter information, find eligible new voters and remove ineligible or duplicate ones from the rolls.
Revised Schedule Announced
According to the updated programme published by the Election Commission, Booth Level Officers will continue house-to-house verification until August 8, instead of the earlier deadline of July 29.
The draft electoral roll will be released from August 5 to August 17. Voters will need a month to verify their data and make any claims or objections when they receive the draft rolls.
The time for filing claims and objections will now run from August 17 to September 16 and residents can ask for corrections, additions or deletions to the voter list before it is completed.
Due to the revised schedule, all remaining stages of the Special Intensive Revision in Delhi have been pushed back by 12 days.
Why was the Timeline extended?
The Election Commission said the revised schedule was approved after the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi formally sought more time on July 14 to complete the revision process.
In its conversation with the CEO, the poll body confirmed that the extension had been granted due to various administrative reasons so that the verification exercise could be completed thoroughly.
The Commission also announced that draft electoral rolls will now be published on August 17 instead of August 5, while the house-to-house verification by Booth Level Officers will continue until August 8.
Part of nationwide Electoral Roll Revision
Delhi is among the states covered under phase 3 of the Special Intensive Revision programme, launched by the Election Commission on May 14.
House-to-house verification in the national capital began on June 30, with Booth Level Officers visiting households to verify voter information and update electoral records.
Once the third phase has been completed, the Special Intensive Revision exercise will have covered almost the whole country except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, where the process is yet to be done.
Ensuring Accurate Voter Rolls
The Election Commission has long argued that periodic revision of electoral rolls is required to ensure the integrity of India’s electoral process. Through door-to-door verification, at which point the Commission will verify and make citizen claims and objections, it wants to ensure that only eligible voters are included and old or incorrect entries are removed.
Now that the revised timeline is set, Delhi residents will have more time to verify their details once the draft electoral roll is published before the final voter list is made available on October 19. The updated electoral roll will be used as the voter database for future elections in the national capital.
