SIR effect: Bengal, Bihar to bar deleted names from welfare schemes
The Congress termed the moves of the Bengal and Bihar governments as “outrageous”
The new BJP government in West Bengal has said that those whose names have been deleted from the electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) will not be eligible to receive the benefits of welfare schemes.
In Bihar, too, where the BJP-led NDA government is in power, the same will start applying, reports said.
91 lakh voters deleted
Ahead of the West Bengal elections in April, the Election Commission (EC) had begun the SIR process to purify the electoral rolls in the state. The SIR exercise saw 91 lakh voters deleted, and 27 lakh of those were on the list of “‘logical discrepancies”, and could not vote. They appealed with appellate tribunals and only 1,607 names were added back to the electoral rolls.
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Bengal Assembly election results were announced on May 4 with the BJP sweeping to power for the first time in the state. Suvendu Adhikhari was sworn in as the chief minister.
As per the BJP’s election promise, women in the state will receive Rs 3,000 per month. And, the names deleted from the electoral rolls during SIR will not be eligible to receive the government’s benefits, Minister for Women and Child Welfare and Social Welfare, Agnimitra Paul was quoted as saying in The Telegraph.
"We will introduce the Annapurna Bhandar for women from June 1. Women will receive Rs 3,000 a month. But those still being verified by the tribunals will not be included in the list of beneficiaries for the time being," Paul said.
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"We will do an analysis before June 1. Those whose names have been struck off, if they are receiving then they are not supposed to. Someone who is dead is not supposed to get it. Someone who is not a citizen of this country, they are not supposed to get it. So we will do this analysis. Those whose names have been struck off, how many of them have been getting Lakshmir Bhandar, their names will be removed," Paul added.
What CM Adhikari said
Chief Minister Adhikari said existing schemes from the previous TMC administration would continue and they would function through a “transparent process”.
"All social programmes of the government, which may have been started 30 years or 10 years back, will continue. However, all such schemes will now function through a transparent process. No deceased person, illegal infiltrator, or non-Indian individual will be allowed to avail benefits meant for citizens of the state," Adhikari was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
She added that those names that return to the electoral rolls after verification by tribunals will again become eligible for the government’s benefits.
Congress reaction
The Congress termed the moves of the Bengal and Bihar governments as “outrageous”.
“After the outrageous decisions of the governments of Bihar and West Bengal based on SIR outcomes, the following question arises: Is citizenship the basis for inclusion in the electoral roll OR is inclusion in the electoral roll the basis of citizenship? The Supreme Court should ponder the question (sic),” senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP P Chidambaram on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Wednesday (May 13).