TFP Bureau
Hyderabad, October 24: Hundreds of people staged a protest at Tank Bund in Hyderabad on Saturday, demanding the immediate scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the restoration of deleted votes.
Organised by People Against SIR, the protest witnessed participation from various civil society organisations, activists, farmers and students. Raising slogans against the revision exercise, the demonstrators expressed concern over the alleged exclusion of eligible voters and demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The protesters also called for the repeal of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, raising concerns over the independence of the Election Commission of India.
Organisers alleged that the SIR process had caused considerable hardship to ordinary citizens, forcing many to visit government offices repeatedly to submit documents and establish their eligibility. They said concerns over possible deletion from electoral rolls and the potential loss of access to government welfare schemes had placed an additional financial and administrative burden on people.
Citing figures, the organisers claimed that 73 lakh voters had been deleted and 93 lakh people issued notices as doubtful voters in Telangana. They further alleged that 13.4 crore voters had been removed from electoral rolls nationwide. These figures were presented by the organisers.
Among those who participated were Professor Haragopal, Parakala Prabhakar, Professor Shanta Sinha, MLC Kodandram, retired IAS officer Akunuri Murali and Kalpana Kannabiran. Student organisations and civil society groups also joined the protest.
The gathering concluded with a collective pledge titled “Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao”. Organisers announced plans to intensify the campaign across Telangana and distributed leaflets explaining their concerns over voter deletions. //eom//
