Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Tuesday warned that those not included in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state would lose their voting rights as well as government benefits.
“The right to vote is the right to live," he said. “In West Bengal, an order has been issued to verify and delete all ineligible ration beneficiaries based on SIR. Similar measures are being taken by other states. If you lose the right to vote, you’ll lose government benefits," he said.
The Election Commission will begin the house-to-house enumeration exercise across Karnataka from Tuesday, and it will continue till July 29.
In a major step to help people with the SIR process, the DK Shivakumar government has announced that it will issue permanent residential certificates to citizens.
The Revenue Department has issued comprehensive guidelines on issuing permanent residential certificates. Citizens can obtain them both online and offline.
Citizens can apply for the permanent residential certificates online through the Seva Sindhu portal and at existing citizen service centres such as Atal Jana Snehi Kendras or Nadakacheris, Bengaluru One, Karnataka One, and Grama One.
Under the SIR exercise, block development officers (BLOs) will visit every household to distribute Enumeration Forms to electors whose names are on the electoral roll as on June 16.
Houses where forms are distributed will be marked with a violet square sticker, while locked houses will be marked with a red round sticker. BLOs will make at least three visits, wherever necessary, to collect the completed forms.
The Election Commission has clarified that no documents will be collected during the enumeration phase.
Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Anbukumar said the revision exercise will cover more than 5.5 crore electors across the state.
According to the Election Commission’s schedule, the draft electoral roll will be published on August 5.
Claims and objections can be submitted until September 4, while the final electoral roll will be published on October 7.
