SIR akin to Bihar across states to witness removal of dead voters from voter list

New Delhi, Oct 2 (PTI) The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across all states in the near future will witness a trend akin to Bihar where lakhs of deceased persons were removed from the voter list after several years.

The Election Commission believes that once the system of linking data of registrar of births and deaths with poll machinery takes firm roots, the issue of deceased persons being part of electoral rolls will eventually be settled.

Before the SIR commenced in Bihar, the state had 7.89 crore electors. After the exercise started, the draft roll published on August 1 had 7.24 crore electors, as nearly 65 lakh names were removed, including 22 lakh deceased persons.

Addressing the media here in August, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar had explained that nearly 22 lakh electors identified as deceased in Bihar did not die recently but were perhaps not recorded in the past.

Responding to a question, Kumar said during the previous normal revision of electoral rolls, enumeration forms were not handed out to every household.

Till people inform about deaths in their families, booth level officers (BLOs) have no means to know about such cases, he said.

During the intensive revision, when the exercise is more stringent, the poll machinery is more vigilant about the deletion of people who have either died or have shifted.

In a bid to update the voter list at a faster pace and make it free of errors, the poll authority will now obtain death registration data electronically from the Registrar General of India (RGI).

This will ensure that the electoral registration officers (EROs) receive timely information about registered deaths and allow the BLOs to reverify the information through field visits, without waiting for a formal request by the kin of the deceased.

"People have no incentive to inform the poll authorities of deaths in their families. But once the data linkage takes root, the presence of deceased persons in the voter list will eventually end," a functionary said.

The functionary said once data linkage with the RGI and municipal and rural bodies is firmly established, the voter list will be more error-free. PTI NAB KSS KSS