Voter lists in U’khand frozen ahead of SIR exercise, no new voter can be added till 15 Sept

By Arun Pratap Singh
my uttarakhand news Bureau 

DEHRADUN, 23 May: The Election Commission has frozen Uttarakhand’s voter lists as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, which is due to begin in the State from May 29. With the electoral rolls now set to be revised, no new voters can be added or deleted from the list until the final publication of the revised voter list on September 15.

The officials said that although citizens will continue to be allowed to submit applications related to voter registration, deletion and correction, no action on these applications will be taken during the freeze period. The restriction will remain in force until completion of the SIR process and publication of the final electoral roll.

The preparations for the revision exercise are already underway across the state. The office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has completed state-level training programmes, while the district-level training sessions will continue till June 7. Between June 8 and July 7, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will conduct door-to-door visits to distribute and collect enumeration forms from voters.

Additional Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Kumar Jogdande shared that the voter lists have been placed in a temporary freeze mode due to the SIR exercise. He clarified that all the pending and fresh applications submitted during this period would be processed only after publication of the final electoral rolls on September 15

The election officials explained that the electoral database has currently shifted to a ‘read-only mode’, which means no real-time additions, deletions or modifications can be reflected in the running database. Under normal circumstances, applications submitted through the Voter Helpline App or the National Voters’ Service Portal using Form-6 for inclusion, Form-7 for deletion and Form-8 for corrections are processed continuously. However, during the revision period, no new entry will become live in the electoral roll.

The freeze will also temporarily halt printing and delivery of new voter identity cards since the database is under revision. Similarly, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and Electoral Registration Officers will not be able to approve or reject applications in the routine manner during this period.

The restriction will also affect voters seeking transfer from one Assembly constituency to another. The citizens who might have shifted residence and they wish to immediately update their address in the voter list, will have to wait until the freeze is lifted after September 15.

The Election Commission has stated that the freeze is a routine administrative measure aimed at ensuring accuracy and transparency during the intensive revision of electoral rolls across the State.