E-roll purified in Bihar after SIR, many new initiatives in store for assembly polls: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday asserted that the special intensive revision in Bihar “purified” the voters’ list after 22 years, and said many new initiatives were being undertaken for the upcoming assembly polls, which would be replicated across the country in due course.
Kumar, who was accompanied by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, addressed a crowded press conference before winding up a two-day tour of the state, where he received feedback from representatives of political parties and discussed poll preparedness with officials.
The CEC also spoke of a number of “initiatives” that were being introduced in polls to the 243-strong Bihar assembly, which had “38 constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes and another two for Scheduled Tribes”.
These initiatives, “which will be replicated across the country in due course”, include a new standard operating procedure to ensure that EPIC cards are delivered to voters within 15 days of registration, and a mobile deposit facility at polling booths. “In order to prevent overcrowding of polling stations, it has been decided that no booth shall have more than 1,200 voters. To make the voting exercise easier for the electors, mobile deposit facility is being introduced at booths,” Kumar said.
“Other new features include 100 per cent webcasting at all polling booths and mandatory verification of VVPAT slips in case of complaints of mismatch in EVM data,” he said.
He said names of 65 lakh voters were struck off before publication of the draft roll in August, while another 3.66 lakh were removed during the claims and objections period for being ineligible—either deceased, non-citizens, or registered at multiple places.
Kumar said appeals against wrongful deletions could still be filed before district election offices. The election process, he added, would be completed before November 22, when the assembly’s term ends.