ECI appoints five more special roll observers in West Bengal
KOLKATA: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday appointed five more IAS officers as Special Roll Observers (SROs) to oversee the second phase of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal. The second phase of the three-tier SIR process begins after the draft roll is published on 16 December. The five bureaucrats--Neeraj kumar Bansor (Home Affairs), Kumar Ravikant Singh (Defence), Alok Tiwari (Finance), Pankaj Yadav (Rural Development) and Krishna kumar Nirala (Information and Broadcasting)--in the rank of joint secretaries will look after SIR drive in five divisions like Midnapore, Presidency, Malda, Jalpaiguri and Bardhaman separately in the state. They will work as micro-observers. About 10 days ago, the national poll body had engaged Dr Subrata Gupta, retired IAS and former secretary of the Union Food Processing Ministry, as the SRO and 12 others serving IAS officers of Bengal cadre for the SIR in the state. All the SROs and 12 other IAS officers will work in coordination with the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal in Kolkata. According to the ECI sources, the additional team of five new SROs have been engaged for the process in a bid to strengthen the second stage of the electoral roll revision process so that no genuine voter is deleted from the list and at the same time no dead, duplicate, absent and permanently shifted voter is included to the SIR list. This time, the national poll body wants the final voters list to be decisive and error-free. This stage involves the filing of claims and objections, along with the notice period for issuing, hearing, verifying and disposing of applications, all of which will be carried out simultaneously by the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs). Dr Gupta, along with 12 other IAS officers assigned earlier by the Commission, met the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar at ECI office in Delhi today and updated him about the progress of the SIR in the state. Almost all opposition parties have asked for micro observers to ensure there is no manipulation at this stage, sources in the CEOs office said, adding that the Commission had found merit in these concerns. Once the second stage is completed, the final version of the electoral roll will be published on 14 February. The announcement of dates for the West Bengal Assembly elections is expected shortly afterwards. Sources in the ECI said that around 55 lakh dead, duplicate, permanently shifted and absent voters have been deleted so far till Saturday. The Commission has identified around 24 lakh dead out the 55 lakh deleted voters. The national poll panel has also instructed electoral officers to intensify progeny mapping, after irregularities were found in parental details in the current voter rolls as of 27 October. The exercise compares parental information on the latest list with records from 2002, when the last SIR was conducted in the state.
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