Rights groups hold protest rally in Kolkata against SIR

Kolkata: Rights groups including Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) on Saturday held a protest rally against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls planned in West Bengal by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

As the poll panel is gearing up to conduct SIR of Bengal’s voter list, the rights body claimed that National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be carried out in the name of SIR.

To mark their protest, members of the rights group took out the rally from College Street in north Kolkata to Dorina Crossing in central Kolkata.

APDR alleged that a conspiracy is going on to take away the voting rights and citizenship of many people through this process.

General Secretary of APDR, Ranjit Sur said, “In the name of creating the voter list under SIR, every person aged 18 years and above will have to mandatorily fill the SIR form. Along with this, every applicant will have to fill a self-declaration form to get their name included in the voter list. Along with the place and date of birth, the place and date of birth of the parents will have to be mentioned compulsorily along with proof. Even the information of the husband and wife will be taken. But none of these will be mentioned in the voter card. Then why is it being taken?”

He said that they want an accurate voter list and not SIR. According to him, the accurate voter list has been revised and updated twice.

The APDR general secretary further said, “They will conduct NRC based on all this information. In 2019, an attempt was made to include this information with the census. But then the government could not do it due to the pressure of the civic movement. The responsibility of proving citizenship has been imposed on the individual. This is against the Indian judicial system. Moreover, the Election Commission has no authority in this matter. There is a Supreme Court verdict in this regard. Most of the people will not be able to get all the documents that are being asked for.”

The rights body claimed that neither Aadhaar nor voter card is being accepted by the Election Commission. They fear that, if the common man fails to submit the documents properly, his citizenship will be taken away.

–IANS

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