Persons excluded in SIR won’t get welfare benefits, passbooks to be cancelled: Bihar CM
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After West Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Bihar has also indicated that people removed during the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls may lose access to welfare benefits, according to a report by The Indian Express.
Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary said that those excluded from the voter rolls would no longer qualify for government benefits such as ration entitlements and welfare schemes.
He also stated that the bank passbooks of such individuals could eventually be cancelled, though it remains unclear whether any formal order has been issued in this regard, Scroll.in reported.
Choudhary took over as chief minister from Nitish Kumar on April 15.
Earlier in July, the Election Commission of India had informed the Supreme Court that individuals deemed ineligible during the electoral roll revision exercise would not automatically lose their Indian citizenship.
The remarks from the Bihar government came a day after the newly elected BJP government in West Bengal announced that women whose names were deleted during the SIR process would not receive benefits under the state’s Annapurna Bhandar scheme.
The scheme, which is set to replace the previous All India Trinamool Congress government’s Lakshmi Bhandar programme from June 1, is expected to provide women with monthly financial assistance of Rs 3,000 instead of the earlier Rs 1,500.
West Bengal minister Agnimitra Paul reportedly said that the revised electoral rolls would be analysed to determine eligibility for the scheme. She questioned how deceased persons or non-citizens could continue receiving benefits and said that authorities would examine whose names had been removed from the rolls.
The West Bengal Assembly elections took place after the Election Commission carried out a special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state. By April 6, around 91 lakh voters, nearly 11.9% of the electorate before the exercise began, had been removed from the voter list.
Before polling, approximately 34 lakh appeals were said to be pending before tribunals, including seven lakh objections to additions in the rolls and 27 lakh petitions from excluded voters. Tribunals restored 1,607 names to the electoral rolls.
On Monday, the Bengal government indicated that individuals whose appeals were still pending before tribunals would continue receiving welfare benefits.
A similar revision exercise was conducted in Bihar between July and September ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled for November. Around 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll, prompting concerns that the process could disenfranchise a significant number of people.