Chandigarh, April 4
Punjab has stepped up preparations for a major revision of its electoral rolls, with officials saying groundwork is being completed in a phased manner ahead of a formal notification from the Election Commission of India.
The exercise, known as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), is aimed at updating voter lists and ensuring that electoral rolls remain accurate, inclusive and free of errors before future polls.
According to Punjab’s Chief Electoral Officer Anindita Mitra, a large-scale pre-revision mapping exercise is already under way across all districts. As of 4 April, around 74.27% of the state’s voters had been linked with records from the last intensive revision.
Officials said that out of Punjab’s total 2.14 crore electors, more than 1.59 crore had already been mapped with earlier electoral data.
The Election Commission had, in February, asked 22 states and Union Territories, including Punjab, to complete preparatory work quickly, indicating that the revision process was expected to begin from April.
Although the detailed schedule is still awaited, Punjab officials said daily monitoring is being carried out at the headquarters level to track the progress of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and resolve any issues quickly.
District-level figures show that Tarn Taran, Moga, Sri Muktsar Sahib and Mansa are among the areas where the highest levels of voter mapping have been recorded so far.
Other large districts, including Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala, have also reported steady progress.
Mitra urged voters to check their names in the 2003 electoral rolls, which are being used as an important reference for the upcoming revision.
She said that if a voter’s own name is not found, they can also look for the names of parents or grandparents to help establish a family link during the verification process.
Once the formal SIR begins, booth-level officers (BLOs) will carry out house-to-house verification across the state. Officials said every person whose name appears in the 2025 voter list will be required to fill out an enumeration form and submit supporting documents.
The state has also put in place support systems for voters, including a toll-free helpline on 1950, which currently operates during working hours and will run round the clock during the revision period.
Voters can also access services through the Voter Helpline App and the “Book a Call with BLO” feature on the ECINET platform.
Officials said more than 8,000 booth-level agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties have already been deployed to support the process and widen participation.
Mitra said the purpose of the exercise was to ensure that all eligible voters are included while duplicate or incorrect entries are removed.
She also reminded voters that being registered in more than one place is an offence under the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
Punjab, she said, is ready to begin the full revision exercise as soon as the Election Commission announces the schedule.
