Uttarakhand Launches SIR Voter Revision Drive; Congress Raises Concerns Over Appointments

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of electoral rolls officially commenced in Uttarakhand on Monday, with Chief Electoral Officer Dr B V R C Purushottam handing over the enumeration form to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami at the state Secretariat. The Election Commission of India has launched the statewide drive aimed at updating and “purifying” voter lists, with enumeration forms set to be distributed to all eligible voters and digitally processed through the BLO app within a month, up to July 7.

The formal launch of the exercise was marked by symbolic participation from top constitutional offices, as Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (Retd) had earlier received the enumeration form at Lok Bhawan. Election officials stated that booth-level officers will play a key role in ensuring that voter data is collected and digitised efficiently, with the process expected to strengthen the accuracy and integrity of electoral rolls across the state.

Meanwhile, the opposition Congress in Uttarakhand has sharply criticised the state government over what it described as a “political rehabilitation drive” through recent appointments of chairpersons and advisers. State Congress Chief Spokesperson Garima Mehra Dasauni alleged that these posts were being used to accommodate political allies rather than being filled on merit, raising concerns about governance priorities amid rising fiscal stress.

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Dasauni further pointed to the state’s increasing debt burden, claiming that borrowings have risen significantly in recent years. She argued that while financial resources are being allocated for political appointments, pressing public concerns such as employment, healthcare, education, and vacant government posts remain inadequately addressed. The Congress has demanded greater transparency and called for a white paper on the expenditure and benefits of such appointments.

In a separate development highlighting a deeply emotional moment from Pithoragarh district, an 85-year-old mother was reunited with her son after 46 years of separation. In Dauligaad village of Berinag, Nandi Devi identified a saffron-clad mendicant seeking alms as her son Buddhi Ballabh Upadhyay, who had left home at the age of 15.

According to accounts shared by the family, Buddhi Ballabh had worked on vehicles after leaving home and later lived in Haridwar before becoming a sadhu in Rajasthan, where he was known as Budh Nath. His return to his native village for alms followed a monastic tradition, and the emotional reunion moved villagers who gathered at the scene, marking an extraordinary closure to a decades-long wait.

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