Chandigarh, May 15 (PTI) Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Anindita Mitra on Friday held a meeting with representatives of registered and recognised political parties and urged them to appoint booth level agents at the earliest to ensure transparency and smooth conduct of the electoral roll revision process.
With the Election Commission of India (ECI) initiating the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, party representatives were briefed in detail about the exercise during the all-party meeting.
Punjab assembly polls are due early next year.
After the meeting, representatives of political parties said they expressed apprehensions regarding large-scale additions or deletions of voters, citing examples of West Bengal and Bihar, where assembly polls were recently held.
During the meeting, Mitra stressed that booth level agents (BLAs) would play an extremely crucial role throughout the SIR process and said registered and recognised political parties in Punjab should complete their appointments without delay.
She said timely deployment of BLAs would facilitate their training alongside booth level officers (BLOs), while ensuring regular sharing of information at every stage of the exercise to maintain transparency.
According to an official statement, Mitra said the office of the Punjab chief electoral officer would remain in continuous coordination with political parties throughout the SIR process.
Mitra further said 89.58 per cent mapping had already been completed in rural areas of the state, while 73 per cent mapping work had been completed in urban areas.
During the meeting, a delegation of senior Congress leaders led by MP Amar Singh, and comprising PCC general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Sandhu and Gagandeep Singh, flagged various issues.
The chief electoral officer also informed the meeting that am SIR had earlier been conducted in Punjab in 2003 and that the current exercise was being undertaken on the basis of that revision.
During the meeting, political parties raised certain queries regarding the SIR process, which were clarified by Mitra, according to the statement.
She assured all representatives that the entire revision exercise would be conducted in a fully transparent manner.
Later, briefing reporters, Amar Singh and Sandhu said they raised the issue of “duplicate votes from other states who are registered in Punjab”.
They said, “Particularly, the voters from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where the SIR process has already been completed, need to be screened in the Punjab electoral rolls.” The party leaders urged the CEO to raise the matter with the ECI, saying duplicate voters from other states could only be cross-checked by the ECI.
The Congress, AAP and SAD leaders also raised the issue of 17 per cent of voters not having been mapped in the state yet.
They said the number comes to around 34-35 lakh voters and they could lose their right to vote if immediate measures were not taken.
The Congress also demanded an adequate response time from the commission for remedial measures in case anybody’s vote is deleted.
The Congress, AAP and SAD asked the commission to provide lists of deleted and newly added voters to political parties for better transparency.
They also said the ECI should ensure that booth level officers closely coordinate with booth level agents for better functioning.
Representatives of the three parties also emphasised the need for enumeration forms in Punjabi so that voters understand what details are being sought from them.
AAP leader Ferry Sofat said that referring to examples of West Bengal and Bihar, representatives talked about how votes were deleted in bulk.
“We also questioned the need for SIR when revision of electoral rolls takes place every year,” he said.
SAD leaders Arshdeep Singh Kler and Daljit Singh Cheema represented their party at the meeting.
“We told the CEO that political parties have apprehensions regarding SIR, considering what happened in Bihar and Bengal,” Kler said.
Mitra said that under the SIR, BLOs across Punjab will conduct door-to-door visits from June 25 to July 24 for filling voter forms.
For the exercise, the entire election machinery has been deployed, including 24,453 BLOs and 2,476 supervisors.
She further said training of BLOs and other preparatory arrangements related to the SIR exercise would be carried out from June 15 to 24.
The CEO said the objective of the exercise is to ensure inclusion of every eligible citizen in the electoral rolls and deletion of ineligible persons from the voter list.
Other representatives present at the meeting included Avtar Singh Karimpuri from the Bahujan Samaj Party, N K Verma from the Bharatiya Janata Party, and R L Modgill and Ranjit Singh from the Communist Party of India (Marxist). PTI SUN PRK
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.