2,000 form human chain at Hyderabad's Tank Bund against SIR

HYDERABAD: More than 2,000 people formed a human chain at Tank Bund in Hyderabad on Saturday evening, demanding the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the restoration of deleted voters' names.

The protest was organised by a coalition of 24 organisations representing civil society, human rights, farmers, Dalits, youth and students. Participants also demanded the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the repeal of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023.

Protesters alleged that the SIR process could lead to large-scale deletions from electoral rolls and undermine people's right to vote. They claimed that 13.4 crore voters had been removed from electoral rolls across the country. In Telangana, they said, 73 lakh people had already been deleted and 93 lakh had received notices identifying them as doubtful voters.

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Many participants carried the national flag and raised slogans against the revision process.

Professor Haragopal, Parakala Prabhakar, Professor Shanta Sinha and MLC Kodandram joined the protest. Students, workers, academics, professionals and civil society activists also participated.

The protesters raised concerns over the impact of the SIR process on women, daily-wage workers, minorities and transgender persons. They also criticised the police action against protesters in Delhi, asserting that peaceful protest was a constitutional right.

As part of the event, participants took a collective oath to protect voting rights and distributed leaflets outlining their concerns over voter deletions in Telangana.

The organisers said they would continue the campaign across the State until the SIR process was scrapped.