KOLKATA: Union Minister of Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Rajiv Ranjan Singh on Saturday alleged that opposition parties are politicising the SIR (Special Intensive Revision) issue for their benefits, while maintaining that this exercise is being conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI), not the Centre.He also dismissed the Trinamool Congress and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s allegations that Bengali-speaking people from Bengal are being harassed and tortured in various BJP-ruled states.After a meeting with the officials from West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Chattisgarh at Kolkata, Singh said, “The Centre has not initiated the SIR of electoral rolls. It is being carried out by the Election Commission of India.” Replying to questions from the media, he said, “The ECI is only verifying who are the genuine citizens of this country. Don’t you think that people who have died or left the country should be removed from the voter list? Unfortunately, some opposition parties seem to be interested in having the names of the dead in the voter list.”He also accused some opposition parties for unnecessarily criticizing the SIR exercise.
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