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The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, directing the exercise
to be carried out across 16 states and three Union Territories in a phased manner. According to the poll body, the latest phase of the SIR exercise has been scheduled keeping in mind the ongoing Census house-listing operations, as both activities involve a common field-level administrative machinery.
With the rollout of Phase-III, the Special Intensive Revision will now cover almost the entire country. The only regions left out for the moment are Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The Election Commission said the SIR schedule for these areas would be announced later after considering the completion of the second phase of the Census and weather-related challenges in snow-bound and upper-reach regions.
The Commission said more than 3.94 lakh Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will conduct door-to-door verification of around 36.73 crore electors during the enumeration phase of the exercise. They will be assisted by nearly 3.42 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by various political parties.
Describing the SIR as a “participative exercise”, the ECI urged all political parties to appoint BLAs at every polling booth to ensure transparency and wider stakeholder participation in the revision process.
“The Special Intensive Revision is a participative exercise involving electors, political parties and election officials,” the Commission said, stressing that cooperation from political parties was essential for ensuring fair and transparent electoral roll verification.
The Election Commission also highlighted the scale of the ongoing revision exercise nationwide. In the first two phases of the SIR conducted across 13 states and Union Territories, nearly 59 crore electors were covered. More than 6.3 lakh BLOs and 9.2 lakh BLAs appointed by political parties participated in various stages of the process.
The Special Intensive Revision exercise is aimed at updating and verifying electoral rolls to ensure accuracy, remove duplicate or ineligible entries and facilitate the inclusion of eligible voters ahead of upcoming elections.
The ECI is expected to release detailed state-wise schedules and operational guidelines for the Phase-III exercise in the coming days.
