UP chief electoral officer reviews progress of SIR exercise

Lucknow, Nov 11 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa on Tuesday reviewed the progress of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls with all district election officers and said enumeration forms have so far been distributed to about 60 per cent of the electorate in the state.

During the virtual meeting, he briefed officials about the guidelines, schedule, and procedures prescribed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the electoral roll clean-up exercise.

Rinwa said that all voters should be provided their enumeration forms at the earliest, and booth-level officers should assist voters in filling them properly.

He was informed that all district election officers have held meetings with representatives of political parties and apprised them of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) procedures and the poll panel's directions about it.

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said enumeration forms have so far been distributed to 9.38 crore voters — about 60 per cent of the total 15.44 crore electorate in the state.

In thirteen districts -- Kanpur Nagar, Moradabad, Mahoba, Kanpur Dehat, Agra, Unnao, Jaunpur, Lucknow, Amroha, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Deoria, and Rae Bareli -- less than 50 per cent of voters have received the enumeration forms. The CEO directed officials to speed up the form distribution process.

All districts were instructed to conduct booth-wise reviews and ensure 100 per cent distribution of enumeration forms by November 15.

Rinwa further instructed all district election officers to share daily progress of the SIR exercise with the media and disseminate updates through official social media handles.

Any misleading or negative posts should be promptly addressed with factual responses, he said.

The CEO warned that any negligence or violation of instructions during the revision process would invite strict action. He also appealed to all political parties and voters to actively cooperate in the exercise. PTI ABN ABN NSD NSD