SIR in Bengal: 30 lakh names to be deleted from electoral rolls

by IANS |

Kolkata, Nov 29 (IANS) Around 30 lakh names of deceased, untraceable and duplicate voters will be deleted from the electoral rolls by the Election Commission of India (ECI), according to the trend of the enumeration forms digitisation during SIR in West Bengal.

As per the commission's observation, of the estimated 30 lakhs of deleted names, around 16 lakhs are deceased voters, and the rest are untraceable voters, duplicate voters, or voters who have permanently shifted to other states.

However, sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, pointed out that this estimate is based only on the percentage of digitisation of the enumeration forms completed so far, and the estimated number on this count might increase further after digitisation is fully completed.

It is learnt that till Friday evening, digitisation has been completed for the enumeration forms of 6.73 crore voters, which is around 88 per cent of 7,66,37,529 voters as per the electoral roll as on October 27, is 7,66,37,529.

"The picture of the number of deleted voters will be clearer on December 9, when the draft voters' list will be published," a CEO's office insider said.

Meanwhile, amid numerous complaints of BLOs succumbing to "political pressure" from the Trinamool Congress and "administrative pressure" from the state government, ECI has come to their (BLOs) rescue.

The commission had deputed a retired IAS officer, Subrata Gupta, as the special observer to review the ongoing SIR exercise in West Bengal. Eleven other observers, all IAS officers, will accompany him.

The team of central observers will review the ongoing SIR exercise and send a report to the Union Government on the matter.

The ECI had sent letters to both the West Bengal Director General of Police, Rajeev Kumar and the Kolkata Police Commissioner, Manoj Verma, directing them to ensure that the BLOs are not pressurised and threatened by political party workers.

The commission had also directed the CEO, West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, to implement the ECI's guidelines to set up polling booths at slums, high-rise buildings, and gated housing complexes in the state.