Poor response from Bihar migrants on EC move for poll roll revision

The Election Commission of India’s ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls for the people of Bihar living temporarily in other states has not evoked much response from migrants living in this border district.

The ECI has made a provision for those Bihar residents temporarily living outside their mother state to file online voter registration through an app after downloading the same over phone.

Rambhawan Goswami of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar Kalyan Parishad, says a majority of the people from the eastern part of the country are engaged as labourers here and are not aware of the new provision. He stated that efforts would be made to make them aware about the new provision.

A majority of the people learnt about the new provision through front page advertisement of the ECI which appeared in several newspapers today.

According to him, about 1.50 lakh Bihar residents are living in this district, with a majority of them engaged in construction, agriculture, industry, as helpers in shops and roadside kiosks serving ready-to-eat food.

Santosh Gandhi, a herbal medicine manufacturer, who migrated here about 15 years ago, said now only his mother Geeta Kuvar, 58, is an eligible voter in Bihar. He stated that he would apply for his mother after downloading the app and added that he learnt about it after being alerted by the local office of the BJP.

A member of the BJP Working Committee Bihar, Om Prakash Singh, Gopalganj district, said under the BJP’s “Ek Bharat Shreshta Bharat programme”, his party had directed him to visit Amritsar five days a month.

During his stay, he would meet reputed Bihar residents and interact with labourers who live here in groups. It was his second visit to the holy city.

He said he learnt from the local BJP office that there were about 80,000 Bihar residents as per the 2011 census and now their figure must have increased.

Amritsar