SIR of electoral rolls is “impractical and filled with irregularities”: suggest citizen’s panel after public hearing in Patna
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
SIR of electoral rolls is “impractical and filled with irregularities”: suggest citizen’s panel after public hearing in Patna
A citizen’s panel called the exercise of election commission on SIR of electoral roll as an “assault on the rights of the people of their franchise” The panel suggested that the ongoing exercise must be stopped. The report highlighted some nine points in Hindi and English. The SIR process gives power to EROs to either delete or add names of voters on their whims which could easily be misused, it said. “The right to franchise is a constitutional right and no one could be disenfranchised solely on the basis of that they donot have documents”, said the report. The panel also suggested that “even the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are not properly trained on ground level” and “fake and untrust worthy information are being given as the process of collecting information on such a huge level are being done in utter haste”. The public hearing held on July 21 in Patna also had participation of 250 people from 19 different districts of the state.
“The public hearing held on July 21 in Patna also had participation of 250 people from 19 different districts of the state and a panel of over a dozen respected citizens to know the ground realities over ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in the state. The report has been released of that public hearing which advocated to stop the process (SIR) which has been an “attack on constitutional rights of people”.
The report highlighted some nine points in Hindi.
The SIR of electoral roll process is “impractical”
“It seems impractical to upload millions of documents and verify it in such a short period of time and above all, such process is happening when flood hits Bihar and people in rural areas are busy in agricultural activities. Even the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are not properly trained on ground level”, highlights the panel suggestions. Under paragraph of “shortcut”, it further says, “under pressure of workload and time, the BLOs are uploading (enumeration) forms without required documents and the forms are also being filled in haste with only aadhar numbers and mobile numbers and even without signature of people. Several people said that when they check online (about status of their enumeration forms) it said their forms have already been filled”.
“Similarly irregularities too have been seen in filling up the forms as to follow the process in such a short time is so difficult, the rules to fill the form are not being followed. People are not getting receipt of their forms filled up and BLOs are not being able to visit every household. False signatures are being done on the forms and talks of bribe given too have come from several places”, said the panel. Under its fourth paragraph, it said, “fake and untrust worthy information are being given as the process of collecting information on such a huge level are being done in utter haste. Later, people will face problem and this only harms the very aim of the process”.
Under “inconvenience and harassment” section, the report highlights that “several people said that they had to forgo with their daily wage as they had to give time in getting their (enumeration) form filled and even several people said that they had to pay ₹ 100 for getting their form filled”. “People do not have even a single of 11 documents the election commission required. In a survey done by Bharat Jodo Abhiyan 37% people do not have the require documents. In another survey done this figure was put as 33%S. So the voters between 33-37% do not have required documents and they could be left behind. It is understood that such a large number of voters cannot be overlooked”, it said further.
Under “boycott” paragraph it is said that the biggest fear among people is not their name included in the voter’s list. “The right to franchise is a constitutional right and no one could be disenfranchised solely on the basis of that they donot have documents. It is for the first time that voters are being asked for documents instead of following the established process. Then on which basis names of voters are either being deleted or added by the Electoral Registration Officer (EROs)? The SIR process gives power to EROs to either delete or add names of voters on their whims which could easily be misused”.
Similarly, it is feared that because of unlimited power in their process of SIR of electoral rolls people from a particular community, caste, constituency could be targeted to for disenfranchisement. “Several people in the public hearing put their views which suggested that the rules are not being followed similarly everywhere, some people are treated easily while, some with strictness. In the next step of filling the forms, danger of deleting and adding votes would be more flagrant when the required documents would be solicited (at maximum places only the forms are being taken, not the documents so far)”. The women have to face more hardship because they are told to bring documents from their parents’ house. At many places in border areas (seemanchal areas) women from neighboring country Nepal are married and living in India for years and exercising their votes as well but now their names could be struck off”.
In the conclusive paragraph the report of people’s hearing said that the SIR process has so many “drawbacks that it will have far reaching results”. “There is strong chances that people may have different names at different places because of flaws in different lists like they have different names in voter’s list, aadhar list and the required documents. The election Commission must try to rectify it”, it said further.