2-week Antyodaya campaign in Raj from June 24: CM
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Sharma said the campaign is aimed at last-mile delivery of welfare schemes and reaffirming the govt's commitment to inclusive development.
He said the broader goal is to make Rajasthan poverty-free and the campaign would complement the recently launched Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Garibi Mukt Gaon Yojana, which aims to uplift all families Below Poverty Line (BPL) in 5,000 identified villages.
"Our vision is to eliminate poverty village by village.
District collectors have been instructed to expand the survey to more villages to maximise impact," he said.
Sharma directed officials to organise daily camps at the gram panchayat level during the campaign and appoint nodal officers to ensure smooth coordination. He also ordered gram sabhas to be held on June 20 to inform villagers about the campaign's objectives. "We want this to be a people-centric movement, not just a govt initiative," Sharma said.
He added that various services would be delivered during the fortnight, including resolution of pending land title and boundary disputes, distribution of Swamitva land deeds, soil health card issuance, and redressal of NFSA cases. The state will also push forward Aadhaar seeding for newly eligible families.
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Indian Express
18 minutes ago
- Indian Express
‘Minta Devi, 124 not out' – error in Bihar woman's age on voter list gives ammo to Opposition; she says gave correct details
Amid the Opposition's protests in Parliament over alleged anomalies in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar, the case of Minta Devi, a first-time voter from Siwan district whose age was listed as 124 years in the voters' list, has drawn attention. The district administration claimed the discrepancy was a clerical error during the online application process, but Opposition leaders took it as fresh ammunition to question the SIR process. Minta Devi, a resident of Arjani Pur village under Daraundha Assembly constituency, was recently issued a voter ID card in which her age was given as 124. According to her Aadhaar card, her correct date of birth is July 15, 1990, making her 34 years old. 'I came to know about this only a few days ago,' Minta Devi said. 'I received my voter ID card just one or two months ago. I did not check it carefully then. When the issue gained attention, I looked at my voter card and realised the mistake,' she said. She had applied for the voter ID card online from a cyber café after several failed attempts to register through the local Booth Level Officers (BLOs), she said, adding, 'I gave the correct details based on my Aadhaar card. This error must have happened while typing or later.' Her husband, Dhananjay Kumar Singh, said no official visited their home during the SIR process. 'The BLOs sit at a common place in the village and collect details, so such mistakes are bound to happen,' he claimed. In an official communication dated August 11, addressed to the District Election Officer, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of Daraundha Assembly constituency confirmed the error. 'During the verification process, Minta Devi's Aadhaar card was reviewed and her correct date of birth was found to be July 15, 1990,' the letter said. The District Public Relations Office of Siwan on Tuesday said, 'Following the publication of the draft electoral roll on August 1, 2025, the BLO identified the error in age and contacted Minta Devi. She has since submitted Form-8 on August 10, 2025, with the reference ID S04109G8C1008251200004, and the correction will be processed as per guidelines.' The Opposition INDIA bloc has seized upon the Minta Devi incident as evidence of alleged irregularities in the process. On Tuesday, INDIA bloc MPs staged a protest in the Parliament complex wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan — 'Minta Devi 124 Not Out.' Congress leader Pawan Khera posted on social media, sarcastically nominating Minta Devi for a world record. 'We proudly nominate Minta Devi for the Guinness World Record: THE YOUNGEST LOOKING OLDEST HUMAN in India — courtesy the several miracles of @ECISVEEP. Waah Modiji Waah,' he posted. Congress MP K C Venugopal also took to social media, saying, 'The Election Commission has done a great service to humankind! They discovered the oldest living human, Smt. Minta Devi, whose age is listed as 124 years in the Bihar SIR! The mega voter fraud done by the ECI can never be allowed. INDIA will keep protesting until it is stopped.' 'Verified' over 119-year-olds Meanwhile, two other similar cases involving two entries in the draft roll of the SIR where the voters were shown to be over the age of 119 have been verified as accurate, officials claimed. In Pirpainti Assembly constituency in Bhagalpur district, the local administration said they confirmed one Asha Devi to be 120 years old after cross-checking with her Aadhaar card. According to an official verification report submitted by the BLO concerned, Asha Devi was found to be alive and residing in Srimatpur village. 'Her Aadhaar card states her date of birth as January 1, 1905, making her approximately 120 years old,' the report noted. A similar case was reported from Gopalganj district, where Mantruria Devi, residing in Balha village under Baroli Assembly constituency, has been listed in the voter rolls since 2003. Her age was 97 in the 2003 voters' list, and was 119 in the latest electoral roll published on August 1, the local administration said. A verification report dated August 12, issued by the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer-cum-Block Development Officer, Baroli, confirmed her age. 'During physical verification conducted in the presence of the BLO, BLO supervisor, ward members and villagers, it was confirmed that Mantruria Devi is alive. Her Aadhaar card reflects her date of birth as 01.01.1906, matching the age of 119 years stated in the electoral roll,' the report said. Officials also clarified that Mantruria Devi's name was not newly added, but has been part of the electoral roll for decades. 'Media reports suggesting otherwise are inaccurate,' the document said.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
The Hindu Morning Digest: August 13, 2025
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Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Court says Aadhaar not conclusive citizenship proof, flags ‘trust deficit'
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said there appeared to be a 'trust deficiency' surrounding the Election Commission of India's (ECI) special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, even as it backed the poll body's stand that possession of an Aadhaar card cannot be treated as conclusive proof of citizenship. The court was hearing multiple petitions challenging ECI's June 24 directive ordering an SIR ahead of the upcoming Bihar assembly polls (HT File) A bench of justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said the first question to be settled was whether ECI had the legal authority to carry out the exercise. 'If they don't have the power, everything ends. But if they have the power, there cannot be a problem. You will have to then tell us about the process,' observed the bench, adding that the court would not hesitate to strike down the entire process if it found that ECI lacked such authority or if 'gross illegality' was detected even after the final rolls were published. The court was hearing multiple petitions challenging ECI's June 24 directive ordering an SIR ahead of the upcoming Bihar assembly polls. Petitioners , which include non-governmental organisations, political leaders and activists, have alleged that the process, if left unchecked, could disenfranchise millions of legitimate voters and undermine free and fair elections. During the hearing, the court remarked: 'This is largely a case of trust deficiency, nothing else.' The bench asked ECI to be prepared with detailed facts and figures, including the number of voters before SIR, the tally of voters declared dead earlier and now, and data on inclusions and exclusions. ECI defended its decision, citing demographic changes, urban migration, and the need to remove inaccuracies from rolls that have not undergone intensive revision for nearly two decades. It maintained that it has plenary powers under Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 to carry out SIR. In its latest affidavit filed on August 9, the Commission stressed that the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 do not require it to prepare or publish a separate list of the nearly 6.5 million persons not included in the draft rolls, or to state the reasons for each non-inclusion. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Rashtriya Janata Dal parliamentarian Manoj Jha, alleged that even voters who had participated in multiple past elections were missing from the draft rolls, with some alive voters recorded as dead. He argued that the requirement to re-submit forms, even for those in the 2003 rolls with no change in address, could lead to unjustified exclusions. Appearing for Trinamool Congress lawmaker Mahua Moitra and some others, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that there is a presumption of citizenship and highlighted the short time period within which the entire process is taking place just ahead of the elections. He further submitted that millions of people cannot be declared invalid on the basis of presumption. Activist and psephologist Yogendra Yadav called SIR 'the largest exercise of disenfranchisement in history,' claiming the exclusions could cross one crore and disproportionately affect women -- 3.1 million women versus 2.5 million men, according to his figures. He said the process had resulted in 'zero additions' to the rolls, turning it into 'an exercise in intensive deletion.' Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), questioned why the draft roll, searchable online until August 4, was later made non-searchable. He also alleged that Block Level Officers had rejected 10-12% of applications without recorded reasons. During the hearing, the bench did not agree with the assertion that most people in Bihar lacked the documents required for verification, pointing to the availability of family registers, pension cards and other papers. On Aadhaar, the court observed: 'ECI is correct in saying Aadhaar can't be accepted as conclusive proof of citizenship; it has to be verified. See Section 9 of the Aadhaar Act.' This provision states that Aadhaar is only proof of identity, and not of citizenship. While acknowledging that errors were inevitable in such a large-scale exercise, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing ECI, said these could be corrected before the final roll is published on September 30. He noted that around 65 million people did not need to submit documents because they or their parents were in the 2003 rolls. The court will continue hearing the matter on Wednesday. The petitions by ADR and others challenge ECI's June 24 notification initiating SIR under Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. The petitioners argue that the ECI's demand for only 11 specified documents, such as birth or matriculation certificates, passport, domicile certificate, etc, as proof of citizenship lacks statutory basis. They further claim that this restrictive documentation requirement could disenfranchise a large number of legitimate voters, especially those from marginalised communities. SIR has become a major political flashpoint ahead of the Bihar assembly elections scheduled for later this year. Opposition parties in the INDIA bloc staged protests in Parliament and wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking a special discussion. The government has dismissed the protests and said that infiltrators cannot have the right to vote. On July 28, the top court had refused to stay the publication of the draft rolls but reminded ECI that the SIR must promote inclusion, not mass exclusion.
