Bhopal, Jan 21 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh Leader of Opposition (LoP) and Congress MLA Umang Singhar on Wednesday wrote a letter to the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), seeking immediate attention over “discrepancies” and “lack of transparency” in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

In his letter, Singhar expressed serious concern over widespread system-generated discrepancies and lack of clarity in the verification process that have emerged after the release of the draft electoral roll under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state.

The Congress leader stated that after the publication of the draft electoral roll under the SIR, a large number of voters’ names have been included in the so-called discrepancy lists in almost all districts of the state.

These discrepancies include entries such as mention of more than six children, inconsistency in the father’s name, a difference of less than 15 years or more than 50 years between the age of the parents and the voter.

“All these discrepancies are entirely data-based and system-generated indicators, intended only to flag cases for verification, and not to draw any final conclusions about the voter’s eligibility. However, the scale of these discrepancies is so vast that millions of voters are affected, creating a situation of fear and confusion among voters,” Singhar wrote in his letter.

Referring to the Election Commission’s guidelines in cases of discrepancies, Singhar stated that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are responsible for taking action only after serving due notice, conducting physical verification on the spot, and providing an opportunity for hearing to the voters.

However, information received from the ground indicates that the process of notice distribution and verification is extremely slow, many BLOs and district-level officers themselves are unclear about the process, and different methods are being adopted in different places. This has further deepened the fear of name deletion among voters in many cases, Singhar claimed.

The Congress leader urged the Election Commission to take the matter seriously and issue the necessary instructions to all District Election Officers, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), and BLOs.

“This situation directly affects the fundamental democratic right of citizens to vote and therefore, immediate administrative intervention is necessary. Discrepancies under SIR are merely verification indicators, and it is not appropriate to automatically demand documents or delete names based on them,” he added.

Notably, after conducting the SIR exercise, the Election Commission released the draft electoral roll for Madhya Pradesh on December 23, which indicated that over 42.7 lakh voters (7.4 per cent) were likely to be deleted.

–IANS

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