BIHAR SIR ROW
NEW DELHI, Aug 29: Poll authorities in Bihar have issued notices to nearly three lakh electors with “doubtful citizenship”, officials said on Friday.
The three lakh electors are among the 7.24 crore people who have found their names in the draft electoral rolls published on August 1 as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list in Bihar.
Those issued notices are suspected to be from Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and even Afghanistan, officials said, citing ground reports.
During verification of documents, discrepancies were noted by the electoral registration officers (EROs).
Field inquiries were done thereafter and notices were issued, they said.
Notices were issued by the EROs largely in East Champaran, West Champaran, Madhubani, Kishanganj, Purnia, Katihar, Araria and Supaul.“These were the districts from where the majority of these cases were identified,” an Election Commission (EC) functionary said.According to the poll panel, so far 99.11 per cent of the 7.24 crore electors of the state have submitted their documents for verification.
The final voter list of Bihar, where assembly polls could be held in November, will be published on September 30.
The Supreme Court has now asked the poll authority to accept Aadhaar or any of the 11 listed documents from people seeking inclusion in the voter list.The EC has asked the Supreme Court to repose faith in it for carrying out the SIR of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
SC to hear RJD, AIMIM pleas
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on September 1 pleas of the RJD and AIMIM for extending the deadline to file claims and objections in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
The deadline for filing claims and objections is September 1. A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi said it would hear the applications of the political parties on Monday after advocate Prashant Bhushan and senior advocate Shoeb Alam, appearing for the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), said several of parties had filed applications for extension of the deadline.Advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for the AIMIM, sought the extension due to large-scale filing of claims and objections.“The number of claims filed are exponentially rising. The deadline needs to be extended,” Alam said.
Pasha said over 80,000 claims were filed before the August 22 order whereas after the order around 95,000 claims have been filed so far.“We are requesting that these applications be listed as early as possible,” he said.
The bench asked the petitioners why they hadn’t approached the Election Commission (EC) for relief.Bhushan claimed their request was not considered by the EC.The plea filed by RJD through advocate Fauzia Shakil said in the SIR, the number of polling booths had increased to 90,712 and the party appointed booth level agents (BLAs) in 47,506 polling booths which is approximately 52 per cent of the polling booths. (PTI)