Rally to protest against SIR in Belagavi today

Members of an anti-SIR federation taking part in a rally against ECI’s SIR in Bagalkot on Sunday.

| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Members of various organisations are organising rallies to protest against Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision drive in some North Karnataka towns.A rally began at Ambedkar Circle in Vijayapura on Saturday. Another rally was held in Bagalkot on Sunday.In fact, the campaign began on Saturday from Bidar. A rally will be held in Belagavi on Monday.Rallies will be held in Dharwad on Tuesday and Gadag on Wednesday. They will conclude in Haveri on Thursday.The campaign will culminate in a mega rally at the Freedom Park in Bengaluru on Saturday.Jagruta Karnataka, Eddelu Karnataka and the anti-SIR federation are part of the group that is organising the rallies.Their demands are immediate suspension of SIR in Karnataka. If the ECI is to go ahead with SIR, then it should not use the logical discrepancy detection software. Instead, it should hold Gram Sabhas in every village and the voter list should be finalized openly after public scrutiny, they said.The voter list should be published in machine readable format and complete transparency should be maintained. The public should be given at least six months to provide the necessary documents to file appeals and objections.