Poll panel extends SIR deadline in five states, one UT

FORTHE SECOND time since October when it announced the schedule for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, the Election Commission Thursday extended the deadline for electors in five states — Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh — and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands to submit enumeration forms in the ongoing exercise.

- DAMINI NATH

Thursday was scheduled to be the last day of enumeration of electors in the SIR for eight states and three UTs, while Kerala had earlier been given an extension until December 18. The draft electoral roll for all states and UTs, except for Kerala, was scheduled to be published on December 16.Kerala’s draft roll will be published on December 23.

In a statement, the EC said it had revised the schedule “based on the requests received from the Chief Electoral Officers of the 6 states/UT”. However, in another statement Thursday, EC data showed that in five of the six states/UT, enumeration work had been completed, with 100% digitisation of enumeration forms. Only Uttar Pradesh, out of the six states/UT that got extensions, was below 100%, with 99.61% forms digitised.