CEC Gyanesh Kumar, while announcing the Bihar poll schedule, said 7.4cr electors in the state reposed confidence in EC with full participation in SIR
NEW DELHI: Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, when asked on Monday to share the number of illegal foreign immigrants deleted from the Bihar electoral rolls on account of the special intensive revision (SIR), did not elaborate on the figure, saying that the relevant data field was not available with EC.”The 7.4 crore electors of Bihar have reposed confidence in EC with their full participation in the SIR exercise and EC reciprocates confidence in them… I appeal to the people of Bihar to participate enthusiastically in the ensuing polls,” Kumar said while announcing the Bihar poll schedule.The CEC said the data on illegal foreigners removed from the rolls for failure to provide proof of citizenship would be available at the assembly constituency level with electoral registration officers (EROs) or assistant EROs concerned, given the “decentralised” nature of preparation of rolls. The ERO, he explained, is the final authority on inclusion or exclusion of names. Kumar, however, said the names deleted from the Bihar rolls – 65 lakh at the draft roll publication stage, and 3.7 lakh more at the final roll publication stage – were found “ineligible” on account of reasons like death, having permanently shifted, remaining untraced during enumeration, for being non-citizens, or having been enrolled at multiple places. “All these lists have been shared, at the level of the assembly constituency, the district level, and state level, and have been shared with the statistics,” the CEC said. “That is why, all these different lists that you are talking about are not at the level of EC, but at the level of the ERO, district election officer (DEO) and chief electoral officer (CEO),” he added.EC had given a break-up of the electors covered in different categories at the time of publication of draft roll, but did not have any separate category for those deleted on account of being non-citizens. Of the 65 lakh deletions, 22 lakh were on account of being deceased, 7 lakh due to being enrolled at multiple places, and 36 lakh on account of having permanently shifted or not being found. Though the last category of 36 lakh voters is inclusive of foreign illegal immigrants, possibly covered under the category “not found” or “untraced”, their exact number was not disclosed. In earlier press notes, EC had put the number of “untraced/not found” voters at 1 lakh, when the overall figure of dead, permanently shifted, enrolled at multiple places and untraced/not found was around 60 lakh.A further 3.7 lakh voters were removed at the time of final publication of roll, but no breakup has been provided yet on why they were deleted.
