Election Commission May Make Special Intensive Revision Mandatory After 22-Year Gap

The SIR, in progress to iron out discrepancies in the voter list, has yet to be resolved after almost 22 years. A large chunk of the country's population migrates from villages to cities and from one city to another every year. Because of this, the Election Commission is thinking now of making SIR compulsory at a fixed interval, say every five to six years.

Discussions are in progress to make the SIR mandatory within a certain period of time, similar to the annual revision of the voter list. Presently, no time frame is fixed within the Election Commission for conducting SIR.

The whole affair has been left to the discretion of the Commission. That is why the Election Commission never took it up during the last 22 years. According to senior officials associated with the Commission, the issue of voter list discrepancies has been raised several times over the years, but the Commission considered it best to resolve it through a general revision. Therefore, no one wanted to get embroiled in the controversy surrounding the SIR.

According to officials associated with the Commission, given the increased migration of people from one place to another within the country, it would be inappropriate to postpone the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list for any longer.

This is especially true when political parties are constantly protesting against the discrepancies in the voter list. Furthermore, it will remain a major issue for political parties in the coming years. It is noteworthy that earlier SIR had taken place in the country between the years 2002 and 2003.