Punjab’s final electoral roll published on Monday recorded over 2.01 crore voters, a decline of more than 13.60 lakh or 6.33 per cent, from the 2.14 crore electors registered before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.However, the final count marked a 3.64 per cent increase over the 1,93,94,435 (1.93 crore) electors listed in the draft electoral roll published on August 13.The final voter roll comprises 1,03,76,026 (1.03 crore) male, 97,24,195 (97.24 lakh) female and 506 third gender electors.Talking to The Tribune, Chief Electoral Officer Anindita Mitra said 6.3 per cent (13.60 lakh) of the votes had been deleted as some voters had died, permanently shifted from the state, were found absent at their given addresses or had duplicate entries. “We undertook an extensive exercise to ensure a smooth SIR exercise,” she said. As many as 7,97,263 new voters have been added this time, which include both first-time voters and women voters,” she said. She said electoral rolls were shared with representatives of all seven registered and recognised political parties in the state.A perusal of the electoral rolls show that the largest number of voters added back to the list after the deletions in the draft rolls are in Amritsar (96,971), Ludhiana (76,159), Jalandhar (60,601), Patiala (53,470) and Gurdaspur (51,537), besides all other districts in the state. The re-entry is the lowest in Malerkotla (7,189), Ropar (8,799), Muktsar (10,766), Barnala (12,070) and Mansa (16,128).When the door-to-door survey was started, there were 12.80 lakh unmapped voters (those whose names could not be matched with the 2003 electoral rolls, when the last SIR was conducted) and there were 22 lakh voters with some discrepancies. “We issued notices to 34 lakh voters, heard them and rectified the errors. A lot of due diligence was done. Thousands of block level assistants (BLAs) appointed by political parties were asked for help and they helped us in verification of all legible voters. The death certificates of all those found dead have been taken and separate lists of duplicate voters has been made, so that there is complete transparency,” the CEO said.Parties appreciate ‘transparent’ processAs protests against special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls gathers pace in the country, most parties, including the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and the Opposition, Congress, have appreciated the “transparent process” adopted in verifying voters in the poll-bound Punjab.On behalf of AAP, advocate Ferry Sofat lauded the efforts made by the office of Chief Electoral Officer during the SIR exercise, saying that their concerns, raised during the course of the exercise, were promptly addressed.HS Kingra of the Congress expressed his satisfaction at the transparent conduct of the SIR exercise, saying that all political parties were kept on board at each step.Arshdeep Singh Kler of Shiromani Akali Dal said though they were apprehensive about the SIR initially, the exercise had been completed on a good note.