Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar did not have to go far to start the state’s voter roll revision. Election Commission officials came to his home in Sadashivanagar on June 30, handed him the enumeration form and watched him fill it in. He signed it, and the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, was under way.
He admitted it was not painless. “I found it a bit difficult to enter all the details,” he said, adding that the officials who came were from Ramanagara district, his home constituency, according to The News Mill, which cited ANI.
Thirty days to return the form
The exercise runs from June 30 to July 29. Speaking at a press conference at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru, as India Today reported, Shivakumar said Booth Level Officers appointed by the Election Commission will visit every household and hand out the form. They will call at a home three times. Every voter must fill in and return the form within 30 days, with the required documents and a recent photograph. The draft electoral roll is due on August 5.
His message was blunt. “If you fail to submit the form, you will lose your voting rights,” he said. He applied it to himself too: even as Chief Minister, he said, he must submit the form or his vote will not stay on the roll.
Each person needs a separate form. If someone is out, another household member can sign for them and hand it to the officer.
Phone numbers and documents
The mobile number is the key, he told voters. People should use the number they gave earlier to download the form. Anyone who no longer has it should give officials a new one. “They will send an OTP to that number,” he said, and voters can then correct their name and address and update their photo. Many people have changed numbers, he noted, so he asked them to write the new one down.
Voters can use their EPIC number together with one of several documents, including birth certificates, passports, caste certificates, pension records and housing allotment papers. For voters who lack a full set, he said residential or caste certificates are options. He added that anyone who gave a valid mobile number when getting a caste certificate can download it through WhatsApp, and that more than 5.5 crore caste certificates and records already exist in digital form.
To help people through it, the state will open an assistance centre in every Gram Panchayat and urban ward, 49,320 in all. Party Booth Level Agents can help too. Shivakumar said BLOs, BLAs and supervisors had already set up WhatsApp groups, and suggested families create their own.
Why he links it to benefits
Shivakumar tied the roll directly to welfare. “Voting rights are the right to life,” he said, naming old-age and widow pensions, Gruha Jyoti, Gruha Lakshmi, Anna Bhagya, housing and site allotments as schemes that depend on staying on the roll. He then softened the point: “We are not going to stop any benefits immediately. We only need to collect and verify the required information.” But, he warned, a name missing from the draft roll will bring complications later.
Sources
- Karnataka CM DK Shivakumar warns as SIR exercise begins in state: Lose vote, lose benefits – Karnataka News | India Today
- Karnataka CM DK Shivakumar initiates voter rolls revision
