THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has extended the time-frame of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Kerala owing to the upcoming local body election.
As per the revised schedule, the enumeration period has been extended till December 18 and the draft electoral roll will be brought out on December 23. The period of filing claims and objections to the draft voters’ list will be from December 23 to January 1.
The poll panel will conduct hearing and verification on the claims and objections from December 23 to February 14 . The final publication of electoral roll will be done on February 21, the ECI informed late on Friday.
On December 2, the Supreme Court had asked ECI to consider the request to extend SIR in Kerala by “a week or so” in view of the local body elections in the state.
The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO)-Kerala informed ECI that SIR draft electoral roll for Kerala was slated for publication on December 16 and that at present, over 95% of the enumeration forms have been digitised.
As the CEO also informed that full digitisation of the forms would be completed by December 11, the ECI decided to extend the SIR time frame for the state. On November 30, the ECI had extended the schedule of the ongoing SIR in 12 states, including Kerala, and Union Territories, by a week.