New Delhi, June 6 -- How do election officials conduct door-to-door verification in abandoned ghost settlements where entire communities have fled in the wake of ethnic violence? And how do they upload photographs of voters' homes when many of those houses have been burnt, bombed or reduced to rubble? These are among the key questions that the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Manipur has raised with the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the context of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls underway in the state, which has been reeling under the grip of ethnic conflicts since May 2023. Senior government officials, who asked not to be named, said the Manipur CEO's office on Friday wrote to ECI asking for a SOP (standard Operating Procedure) on conducting SIR for the state's internally displaced people (IDPs). There are around 60,000 people from both Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities whofled their houses due to the ethnic clashes. Due to the unresolved ethnic violence, the communities still live in the strongholds they have retreated to-Meitei in the valley districts and Kuki-Zo in the hills. "The enumeration process for all non-IDPs across the state is on but for IDPs, it is on hold. The CEO's office has told us that ECI will send a communication on how it is to be done," an official involved in SIR in the state said. The official added the CEO's office has until then asked each district to nominate special Assistant Electoral Registration Officers(AEROs) to exclusively deal with cases of IDS. "These special AEROs will help in getting all documents online. People left their documents behind when they had to flee their homes. Getting their documents is an easy task, and it is being done. All the records are online," the officer said, adding that the main issue is verifying that the voters indeed lived at the registered address. Additionally, in the ECI App, the commission has made it mandatory to take a picture of the house and upload it. "In Manipur, that is not possible because there are ghost colonies in both the valley and hill districts," a second official involved in the process said. This official added that due to the ongoing Naga-Kuki clashes, people have left their homes and are living with their relatives in their stronghold areas, resulting in many ghost villages in such districts too. An ECI official said the SOP will be straightforward. "The booth-level officer will distribute enumeration forms to displaced voters. Those who can match a family member already on the last electoral roll would need no documents and will just have to fill the form and give the relative's details. Displaced voters whose name or that of a parent, spouse, or sibling appears on the roll can be enumerated at the camp without producing any documents," this person added, asking not to be named. As for the house photograph, the mandatory requirement will be waived. ECI has also allowed online submission of claim forms without physical documents, giving Manipur's AEROs flexibility when documents can't be produced. Meanwhile, the Kuki Organisation for Human Rights asked the ECI for a clear protocol for door-to-door enumeration of IDPs, noting 58,821 people in 174 relief camps. "The enumeration model that presumes the elector is reachable at his/her ordinary residence carries a real and foreseeable risk of differential deletion," it said....