ECI Diktat: Bihar Voters to Give Proof of Parents' Birth

Voters in Bihar will have to furnish documentary proof to establish the date of birth and/or place of birth of one or both of their parents (depending on the date of birth of the elector or those applying to become voters).

- Anirban Guha Roy

PATNA:

This is part of the new directives of the Election Commission of India (ECI) that is conducting the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which started in the state on Wednesday.

The new SIR directive aims to ensure that only genuine citizens of the country get enrolled for voting. It also seeks to delete ineligible voters or those having their names registered in two constituencies (having not omitted their names from previous addresses despite migration/shifting on account of job, marriage, or family issues) from the list.

The verification through proof, according to officials, will also ensure that names of dead voters are deleted.

The SIR is being done in Bihar in the run-up to the assembly polls scheduled to be held in October-November this year. The last such exercise was conducted in 2003.

"The SIR directives are detailed and would be followed in principle by the booth-level officers (BLOs), who would be making house-to-house verification of voters. The exercise has begun from today and will continue till July 26," said a state election department official.