SIR deadline extended in Andhra, Telangana, Delhi and three other states

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has extended the deadline for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh,  Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, and Nagaland.

For both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the date for publication of the final electoral rolls has been pushed from to November 30, from November 9 and October 30 respectively. 

The poll panel communicated the revised schedules to the respective Chief Electoral Officers following requests from them. 

As per the revised schedule announced on October 29, the notice phase and disposal of claims and objections will now conclude on November 26 for Telangana, instead of the earlier deadline of November 5. For Andhra Pradesh, this date has been extended to November 20. 

Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) C Sudharsan Reddy wrote to the ECI on October 29 seeking an extension of the schedule.

In Telangana, the SIR exercise began with 3,38,26,448 registered voters. Of these, 2,64,87,213 submitted their enumeration forms. The remaining 73,39,235 electors were categorised under Absent, Shifted, Death and Duplicate (ASDD) entries and excluded from the draft electoral rolls.

In Andhra Pradesh, out of nearly 4.16 crore voters who were on the pre-SIR rolls, enumeration forms were collected from 3.71 crore, or 89.22% of them, who made it to the draft roll. Around 44.89 lakh names were removed as they were found absent, shifted, dead/deleted or duplicate (ASDD). 

In Telangana, as of October 29, 92,81,189 of the 92,88,188 notices generated under the SIR exercise in Telangana had been delivered to voters according to the CEO’s office, leaving only 6,999 notices pending.

Hearings have been completed for 92,08,443 notices. Meanwhile, 78,108 first hearings and 1,636 rescheduled hearings had lapsed as of October 29.

A total of 2,59,22,684 voters had been cleared for inclusion in the final electoral rolls. This includes 59,31,395 electors who had cleared logical discrepancy checks and 30,64,168 unmapped electors identified through the 2002 SIR records.

The ECI also reported that 50,690 electors had been found ineligible for inclusion in the final electoral rolls.

The poll panel has revised the schedules in the other states and Delhi as well. In Maharashtra, the deadline for filing claims and objections has been extended from October 26 to November 13. The notice phase and disposal of claims will continue until November 25, while the final electoral rolls will be published on November 30.

In Delhi, the deadline for filing claims and objections has been extended from October 30 to November 25. The disposal of claims and objections, earlier scheduled to conclude on November 30, will now continue until December 15. The final electoral rolls will be published on December 22.

The ECI has revised the SIR schedule multiple times in the past, citing requests and logistical requirements from states.