Kolkata: The electoral registration officers (EROs) engaged in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal will need to obtain final clearance from the special roll observers (SROs) before uploading the voters’ names into the final electoral list.
However, this restriction will only apply in cases of those voters who have appeared for hearings on claims and objections to the draft voters’ list, after being identified as “unmapped” or in the “logical discrepancy” category.
The names of voters in the draft voters’ list, who have neither been categorised as “unmapped” nor as the “logical discrepancy” category, will be automatically included in the final voters’ list.
“Unmapped” voters are those who could not establish any linkage — either through self-mapping or progeny mapping — with the 2002 voters’ list, the last occasion when such an intensive revision exercise was conducted in West Bengal.
“Logical discrepancy” cases, on the other hand, involve voters whose family tree data revealed anomalies during the progeny-mapping process.
Insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said the SROs will first examine the supporting identity documents that the voters appearing for hearing have furnished, and only after being satisfied by the authenticity of those documents will give go ahead to the EROs concerned to upload those names.
This exercise is aimed at ensuring that only voters who provide any one of the 13 identity proof documents listed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) are included in the final voters’ list.
Meanwhile, the Commission has approved the two separate lists of “unmapped” voters and “logical discrepancy” cases identified during the ongoing SIR exercise in the state. Both the approved lists have reached the CEO’s office and were circulated among the EROs Saturday night.
The work for displaying hard copies at block offices, panchayat offices in rural areas, and ward offices in municipalities and municipal corporations has also started from Sunday morning and is expected to be completed by this night or at the latest by Monday morning.
The deadline for the completion of the hearing sessions will expire February 7, and the final voters’ list is scheduled to be published February 14. However, the Commission had indicated that both deadlines might be extended.
Soon after the publication of the final voters’ list, the ECI is likely to announce the polling dates for the crucial Assembly elections in the state.
