Ranchi: Congress on Wednesday urged Election Commission to extend the hearing period for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by at least 30 days, citing a backlog of cases, delays in issuing documents and technical glitches in the voter verification process.The hearing process is scheduled to end on Nov 23, with the final electoral roll due to be published on Nov 30.A delegation led by Jharkhand Congress in-charge K Raju and state president Keshav Mahato Kamlesh met chief electoral officer K Ravi Kumar and submitted a memorandum seeking corrective measures to ensure eligible voters are not excluded from the rolls due to administrative hurdles.Citing SIR data till Oct 31, the party said 59.56 lakh notices had been issued across the state. Hearings had been completed in 40.25 lakh cases, while 19.31 lakh cases remained pending. More than 5.06 lakh notices were yet to be served, it said.“Several blocks are not issuing permanent residence certificates. People are also facing difficulties in obtaining caste certificates, family registers and genealogical records,” Raju said, adding that many eligible voters were unable to submit the required documents within the stipulated time.Congress also flagged the increased workload on election personnel and technical problems in the BLO app. It said some voters continued to be shown as pending even after attending hearings, while others received fresh notices despite completing the process.The party sought acceptance of locally issued residence certificates after verification, priority issuance of pending documents, SMS confirmations for voters attending hearings and prompt resolution of technical glitches.Kamlesh said festivals and govt holidays had made it difficult to complete hearings within the existing deadline.Raju, who began a two-day state visit on Wednesday, said leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, is expected to visit Jharkhand in the third week of Nov for rallies against “vote theft” and seeking the removal of CEC Gyanesh Kumar. The party is also campaigning against SIR.
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