SHILLONG, MAY 5: Meghalaya is fully prepared to conduct the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll as per the schedule announced by the Election Commission of India, Chief Electoral Officer Dr. BDR Tiwari said on Friday after a meeting with all political parties.
“The Election Commission of India has announced the third phase of special intensive revision (SIR) for the remaining States and UTs of the country and accordingly Meghalaya is also covered in this phase of SIR,” Dr. Tiwari said.
He added, “The qualifying date for Meghalaya, along with Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi, has been fixed as October 1, 2026.”As per the ECI schedule, preparation for training and printing will be carried out from June 20 to 29. Booth Level Officers will conduct house-to-house visits from June 30 to July 29. Rationalization of polling stations is to be completed by July 29. The draft electoral rolls will be published on August 5.
“The period for filing claims and objections will run from August 5 to September 4, while the notice phase and disposal of claims will continue till October 3. The final electoral roll is scheduled for publication on October 7,” Dr. Tiwari said.
On the state’s preparedness, he said, “Accordingly, the necessary preparatory exercise has already been taken up earlier as per the instruction of ECI and the state of Meghalaya is ready for the conduct of SIR in the state as per the schedule provided by the ECI.”
Dr. Tiwari said the first round of consultations with political parties had been held. “We had first round of discussion and meeting with all political parties of the state. The schedule and the needful procedures of SIR has already been briefed and all the queries and concerns raised by the political parties that has also been addressed,” he said.
He urged parties to appoint Booth Level Agents.
“We requested them for appointment of booth level agents (BLAs) from their end. We are expecting a positive response from the political parties because BLAs are also very much important stakeholders at the grassroot level to work in the polling stations along with the BLOs to maintain transparency,” he said.
“We are fully committed to keep this entire SIR exercise transparent, free, fair and make our electoral roll healthy and error free,” Dr. Tiwari added.
Explaining the documentation process, he said, “In the enumeration phase, the house listing operation, no additional document will be required but there are four categories of the voters — whose names are registered in the voters’ list of 2005, such electors are required to submit only the relevant part of that year of the voters’ list along with the enumeration form.”He continued, “Another category is that whose names are not found in the 2005 voters list and who are born in India before July 1, 1987, such electors are required to upload and submit self documents along with the enumeration form. There are eleven self documents, the list of which has been provided by the ECI.”
“The other category will be the electors, who were born between July 1, 1987 and December 2, 2004 and whose mother and father’s names are not registered in the voters list, such electors are required to upload some of the self documents and documents of either their mother or father along with the enumeration form,” he said.
“Another category is the electors, who were born after December 2004 and whose mother’s and father’s names are not registered in that year’s voters list, such electors are required to upload and submit the self document, mother’s document, and father’s document along with the enumeration form,” Dr. Tiwari said.
He noted that mapping work was well advanced. “All the voters list is uploaded and is in the public domain as on January 1, 2005 and mapping exercise compared to present updated electoral roll been taken up with the previous one and more than 68% mapping exercise already completed in the state,” he said.
“Around, 16.14 lakh voters out of 23.44 lakh already been mapped with the previous SIR and remaining mapping exercise could not find then all necessary exercise and preparatory works are being taken up.”
On document requirements, Dr. Tiwari clarified, “Why birth certificate is not only one document. There are certain other documents that are there. Ration card might be there. They can produce and documents. If they are already mapped, I don’t think there will be any major problem in respect to the documents in the state.”
