Dispur and AASU favour SIR in Assam, CEO asks election officers to get ready for roll revision

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) also favours the SIR (Special Intensive Revision) of electoral rolls in the state, let alone the Assam Government. The State Chief Election Officer (CEO), on the other hand, has asked all district election officers (DEOs) to get ready as the SIR is round the corner for the entire country.

Supporting the SIR, Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the voter lists in Assam have names of Bangladeshis. "The same names may appear in the voter lists of different districts like Barpeta, Guwahati, and even in Delhi. Even the names of dead people are also in voter lists. This is why SIR is a must in Assam," he said, adding that Aadhaar linkage to the voter list will do away with this problem.

AASU's chief adviser, Samujjal Kumar Bhattachajya, said, "The electoral roll revision is a must in Assam. However, prior to that, the modalities of the roll revision have to be prepared. Our stand is crystal clear that the revision of electoral rolls should be according to the Assam Accord."

Bhattacharjya said, "The Assam Agitation started with the issue of roll revision. In 1979, when we detected names of many people of suspected nationalities in the voter list in Mangaldai, we raised the demand for the revision of the electoral roll. However, the then government at the Centre rejected our demand outright. And that triggered the Assam Agitation."

Meanwhile, in its letter to the DEOs, the state CEO said, "The SIR is around the corner for the entire country, and the schedule for the same may be declared by the ECI very soon within the next 15-20 days."

The CEO requested the DEOs to make sure that all EROs, AEROs, and BLOs are in place. The CEO also made it a point that the staff members of district election offices and data entry operators should not be given any additional responsibilities whatsoever once the SIR schedule is announced.

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