RJD slams Election Commission on SIR; Alleges it is ‘special intensive deletion’

“In a way, the signals are someone else’s, and the intentions are someone else’s too. An attempt is being made to suppress voting; this should not be called a special intensive revision but rather a special intensive deletion, which will be brought to an end.”

New Delhi: The Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) on Saturday lambasted at the Election Commission and alleged that the Commission was deliberately undermining the democratic process.

The Party MP Manoj Kumar Jha said that SIR is not "Special Intensive Review" but it is "special intensive deletion" of voters ahead of Bihar Assembly Elections. He said that the ECI has even ignored the Supreme Court instructions. It appears that the commission is running under hidden directives.

Election Commission Is Obstinate

Talking to media, Jha said," We are already witnessing the obstinacy of the Election Commission... We have also seen that the Supreme Court's clear instructions to the Election Commission were not followed.

"In a way, the signals are someone else's, and the intentions are someone else's too. An attempt is being made to suppress voting; this should not be called a special intensive revision but rather a special intensive deletion, which will be brought to an end."

BLOs, others Remuneration Increased

In the meantime the Election Commission of India (ECI) has doubled the remuneration for Booth Level Officers (BLOs). The Commission has also increased the remuneration for BLO Supervisors along with the honorarium to Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs).

In a press release the Election Commission said, "Pure electoral rolls are the bedrock of democracy. The electoral roll machinery, consisting of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), BLO Supervisors and Booth Level Officers (BLOs), do a lot of hard work and play a pivotal role in preparation of impartial and transparent electoral rolls."

"The Commission has therefore, decided to double the annual remuneration for BLOs & also enhanced the remuneration of BLO Supervisors involved in the preparation and revision of electoral rolls," added the Commission in the press release.

The Commission said that remunerations for BLOs, incentives for BLOs for Revision of electoral rolls, and BLO Supervisors of Rs 6000, Rs 1000, and Rs 12000, respectively, have not been revised since 2015.

Revised Remuneration

After the current revision the remuneration will be Rs 12000 for BLOs, Rs 2000 for an Incentive to BLO for Revision of the electoral roll and Rs 18000 for BLO Supervisors. For AERO and ERO, remuneration will be 25000 and 30000, respectively.

The Election Commission has also announced a special incentive of Rs 6,000 for BLOs for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) starting from Bihar.