EC sets ball rolling for SIR in flood-hit Punjab, chief poll officer orders update of voter lists

After Bihar, the Election Commission has set the ball rolling for the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in other states, including flood-affected Punjab.

Anticipating directions from the Election Commission (EC) to start the SIR once the flood situation improved, the Punjab Chief Electoral Officer has, in a letter dated September 5, asked various district authorities to “update and keep ready” their electoral record.

“The revised lists should be prepared while comparing these with the 2003 voter record. The SIR is to be completed in 2026,” the letter states. A senior official attached with the process said comparing the 2025 electoral lists with those of 2003 (when the last SIR was conducted) was a prerequisite for conducting the exercise. He said the SIR norms were discussed at length during a recent conference convened by the Chief Electoral Officer.

“As the issue is intricately linked to the citizenship Act and the qualifying dates, we have devised a formula for understanding all this…. Booth level officers (BLOs) will be required to fill a particular document,” said the official.

An IAS officer posted as a deputy commissioner said matched and unmatched voters would be put in seven categories on the basis of documents submitted during the SIR. “Though the exercise has been delayed due to the floods, we are working on it. Revised lists will be matched, updated and then submitted to the Punjab CEO. Orders have been issued to the BLOs under the title SIR-2026 to match the voter lists of 2003 and 2025. The names of the voters existing in the 2003 lists but missing in 2025 should be sent with a written reason such as death, migration, etc. Similarly, the voters present in the 2025 list but not there in 2003 should be marked as ‘new voters’,” said the officer.

Sangrur DC Rahul Chaba confirmed that the aim behind the SIR-2026 was to complete voter lists by next year. He said eligible voters based on age and other criterion would be included in the list.

Punjab CEO Sibin C, however, said no directions on when to start the SIR had so far been received from the Election Commission, and that “for now, only records were being updated”.