PATNA, July 25 -- Parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary on Thursday told the assembly that the state government was committed to ensuring that no eligible voter missed out from being enlisted in the electoral rolls, while emphasising that roll revision was usually done before elections in any state. "The government is totally committed to ensuring that no eligible voter gets excluded from the voters' list in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The roll update has its own importance like weeding out dead voters, those having names in more than one place and also those having shifted from their previous addresses," the minister said. He made the statement on a discussion on SIR in assembly in the pre-lunch session, which saw participation of Opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Congress legislature party leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan, CPI-ML(liberation) MLA Mahboob Alam and HAM(S) members. Chaudhary insisted that the Opposition leader had made it clear that his party was not opposed to SIR and underlined how it was the intent of the government too to ensure all eligible and genuine voters got enlisted in the voters' list being updated under SIR. Chaudhary also highlighted that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had made it clear that anybody whose names got missed from the draft rolls could file claims/ objections in the specified period. "At least 98 per cent of electors have been covered under SIR so far as per ECI," said the minister. Dy CM Samrat Choudhary too told the House that SIR had come up with revealing data about deceased voters and those having shifted from the state while stating that the exercise was aimed at weeding out ineligible voters from the list. "Even RJD chief Lalu Prasad had said that illegal immigrants should be excluded from voters' list and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee too had aired similar sentiments years back as an MP. The SIR has come up with data revealing around 18.66 lakh voters being dead, 26 lakh having shifted permanently. The BLOs are verifying the voters and there would be no omission of names of eligible voters from the list," said Choudhary. The deputy CM also said migration had come down in Bihar under the NDA rule and only two-three per cent of the state's total population was eking out a living in other parts of the country. Earlier, Tejashwi in his address expressed gratitude to Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav for allowing a discussion on the ongoing SIR in the House. He said the exercise should ensure that all eligible voters in the state should have their names in the voters' list and not a single name gets deleted as otherwise it would deprive eligible voters from casting their vote. Congress's Shakeel Ahmad Khan said voters were facing difficulties in procuring documents to establish their date of birth and/or place of birth. CPI-ML(liberation) MLA Mehboob Alam said in Seemanchal districts people were facing difficulty in procuring documents and the process of procuring permanent residency certificate had become slow and complicated. AIMIM MLA, Akhtarul Iman too expressed similar sentiments highlighting how voters of Seemanchal districts were being looked at with suspicion and the process of getting documents was proving a hard job for voters. "Are we not Indians?" the AIMIM MLA asked. From the ruling side, HAM(S) MLA Jyoti Devi said the exercise would help in inclusion of names of genuine voters. Meanwhile, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday asserted that the party was keeping the "option open" to boycott the upcoming polls in the wake of controversy over SIR. He made the remark outside assembly on the penultimate day of the monsoon session, responding to queries from reporters. "We are keeping the option open for a boycott of the assembly polls. When the time comes, we will take a decision following a discussion with the alliance partners. What is happening in the name of SIR is nothing short of a fraud," Yadav said. "Booth-level officers are putting their own signatures and thumb impressions, on behalf of voters, on enumeration forms. Blank forms are being used like waste paper. Independent journalists who point out these anomalies are getting slapped with FIRs. And the government is okay with all this because the EC is acting like a political tool of the ruling dispensation," he alleged....