MANGALURU: Actor and activist Prakash Raj, who is touring Karnataka with civil society groups to document alleged discrepancies in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, on Monday demanded that the exercise be scrapped and that records of Election Commission decisions and meetings be placed before the Supreme Court.Raj, who reached Mangaluru as part of the fact-finding tour, said the group had visited different districts and was examining around 100 polling booths to document discrepancies, confusion and difficulties faced by voters, news agency PTI reported.“We are going to file a report of our findings of the 100 booths and the discrepancies, the trauma, the confusion and the murder of democracy which has happened in the country,” Raj said.The group is scheduled to travel to Kodagu next and submit its findings on September 30, he said.Questioning the fate of voters who had not been able to respond to the SIR process within the stipulated time, Raj referred to a media report on the number of people who had returned through Form 6.“What will be the fate of others because the deadline is over?” he asked.Raj also hit out at the Election Commission over its recent explanation regarding concerns raised about its electoral roll system.Referring to concerns raised by two election commissioners, he said they should not be dismissed as mere dissent.Speaking to PTI, he said, “It is not a dissent. It was a warning. It was an anguish. It was the truth.”He further alleged that the Election Commission’s response was an attempt to cover up evidence and said the proposed investigation of its electoral roll system by IITs and IIITs should have been initiated earlier.“Election Commission’s press note is an attempt to hide and clean evidence. No, this will not happen,” he said.Calling for the SIR exercise to be withdrawn, Raj said, “Scrap SIR because the process is wrong. The process is illegal. It is unconstitutional.”He also demanded that all records relating to decisions, meetings and communications of the Election Commission since the present commission took charge be made available to the Supreme Court.“All those files should be immediately asked to be given to the Supreme Court before there is a fire in the Election Commission and files get burnt,” he said.Raj had earlier said the civil society groups would collect documents and voter-related cases from across Karnataka during their fact-finding tour and submit the findings to the state government by September 30.The group has also planned a press conference in Delhi on October 1 and a gathering of affected people at Jantar Mantar on October 15.(With agency inputs)
