New Delhi: Former IAS officer M.G. Devasahayam has written to the Election Commission (EC) requesting that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise be paused until “social audit” rules are framed through a ‘Jansunwai’, or public hearing, on proposed inclusions and deletions.
Devasahayam, the convener of the Forum for Electoral Integrity and Coordinator of the Citizens’ Commission on Elections, said in the 20 November letter that the EC should frame social audit rules before finalising the voter list after the enumeration process is over.
He added that if the EC wants to continue with the SIR, “it may do so strictly by following the Social Audit procedure”.
“Social Audit is an open, individual and collective application of the mind of the people, using base documents and records, and providing testimonies to corroborate the records or question the information they contain,” the letter said.
Devasahayam’s letter also suggested a framework for such an audit. It begins with disclosure and wide dissemination, suggesting that for each booth, the extract of the existing (base) roll be displayed on notice boards, public hospitals, schools, polling stations, and on the CEO’s website for download.
This disclosure must be made at least 15 days before the scheduled Jansunwai at a Gram Sabha or Ward Committee. It also proposed that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) must carry blank copies of Form 6—an application for first-time voters or for shifting from one constituency to another—during house-to-house enumeration and must assist voters in filling the form.
The letter said BLOs must display booth-wise draft lists of claims and objections received during door-to-door enumeration 48 hours before the public hearing.
The letter proposed that during the public hearing the BLO read out the names in the proposed revised voter list, names of deleted voters with reasons, names of new voters with reasons, details of claims and objections received, and the decisions taken on each.
During this public hearing, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) or their delegate must be present, along with members of the Panchayat or Ward Committee, and revenue officials to answer queries and produce documents.
All residents should be allowed to testify in support of or against any entry, party agents and civil-society observers should be permitted to be present, and the entire proceeding be video-recorded, the letter adds.
Also Read: Deaths, boycotts over workload threaten to derail SIR. BLOs ask ‘how long should we work?’
‘Wasteful & unnecessary’
The letter called the SIR exercise “overbroad, wasteful, and wholly unnecessary”, saying it imposed “disproportionate burdens” on existing electors who have already undergone due verification and have been validly enrolled in accordance with the law.
It said the stress and strains in the implementation of the exercise have already led to nationwide protests and the death of three BLOs by suicide.
It added that the SIR process was contrary to the procedure laid down under the law, and that the exercise effectively transforms “universal adult suffrage from a fundamental democratic guarantee into a conditional privilege dependent on bureaucratic compliance by untrained, unaccountable “officials/volunteers” who have been informally converted into data processors”.
The exercise, it said, transfers the statutory responsibility of voter enrolment from the EC to the citizens themselves.
According to the letter, the EC’s Manual on Electoral Rolls (2023) already contained some features of social audit, such as a provision for reading out of the draft roll in a Gram Sabha or Ward Committee meeting to ensure that any omissions or commissions are brought out and remedial action is initiated.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also Read: Mamata writes to EC over polling booths in housing societies. ‘Creates haves & have-nots’
Ms. Mandhani has always given the impression of being ideologically indoctrinated. Such sub-standard articles buttress the point furthermore. One fails to understand why ex-IAS Devasahayam’s letter to the EC is so important for her to write an entire article on.
It’s unfortunate that ThePrint seems to have no editorial oversight or checks which result in such slanted and biased reportage by some of it’s journalists.
The real news from West Bengal today:
Ms. Mamata Banerjee was heckled and insulted by protesters in Barasat as the eye of a dead body (expired in an accident) was surgically removed and sold by the doctors at the local medical college. Of course, the suspected racketeers are members of the ruling TMC.
We know that ThePrint will never publish such news on it’s portal.