Plugging loopholes in the electoral roll

The Election Commission of India (ECI)'s decision to undertake a special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll across India, beginning with Bihar, comes against the backdrop of mounting controversy over the role of the poll watchdog in high-profile elections.

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ECI said on Tuesday that it had decided to weed out ineligible names from the electoral roll, citing rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths, and the inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants as some of the motivations for the house-to-house verification exercise. People whose names didn't figure in the rolls in 2003, the last time the