Hyderabad, June 24 (IANS) Telangana Chief Minister, A. Revanth Reddy, on Wednesday warned of strict action against Congress party leaders not following the party instructions with regard to the ongoing process of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electrical rolls by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Participating in a Zoom meeting on SIR with party leaders, Chief Minister Reddy instructed Ministers, MLAs, MPs and constituency in-charges to be extra vigilant on SIR in the wake of the reports of possible deletion of genuine voters from the voter list.

He warned that the in-charges will be replaced with new ones if they failed to implement the party's instructions. "We will not tolerate any negligence and are observing the performance of the in-charges for 10 days,” a release from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) quoted him as saying. CM Reddy also appealed to the party Sarpanches to organise the SIR and create awareness among people in the villages. "The SIR issue is a very serious matter. Some leaders are being negligent about the SIR," he said.

The Chief Minister made it clear he will not remain a silent spectator when the party suffers damage as he had already received district-wise reports regarding the SIR awareness meetings. CM Reddy instructed the leaders to organise more awareness meetings on SIR and entrusted the in-charge ministers with more responsibilities to make the meetings successful. The Chief Minister emphasised that the voting rights of the poor should be safeguarded during the SIR. If the poor lose their votes, they will also lose their Aadhaar and ration cards, he said.

CM Reddy stated that all leaders should strictly adhere to party directives. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president, Mahesh Kumar Goud, AICC in-charge for Telangana Meenakshi Natarajan, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, AICC Secretary Sachin Sawant and other leaders attended the meeting. Mahesh Kumar Goud said that Congress cadres have a key role in protecting the rights of all genuine voters. He said there was a need to remain alert and keep an eye on the strategies of the BJP.

Flagging the deletion of voters in West Bengal, he underlined the need for the party cadres to remain vigilant. The meeting was held a day before the launch of the enumeration exercise in the state by the ECI. Booth-Level Officers (BLOs) will carry out door-to-door verification across the state from June 25 to July 24.

--IANS