ECI halts hearings for unmapped voters in Bengal, exempts seniors, PWDs and pregnant women
KOLKATA: In a fresh directive, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has instructed district magistrates (DMs), serving as district electoral officers (DEOs) for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, not to issue notices for hearings to voters identified as unmapped. The ECI has also exempted voters aged 85 or above, as well as persons with disabilities (PWDs) and pregnant women, from appearing at hearing centres. West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (WBCEO) Manoj Agarwal said, People who are 85 years or older, PWDs, and pregnant women of any age who have been served notices by the Commission need not come for hearings. Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will contact them at their doorsteps to verify the documents required to include their names in the electoral rolls. Over 32 lakh voters who could not trace themselves, their parents, or grandparents in the electoral rolls during the last SIR in 2002 in Bengal had been asked to appear at hearings which began on 27 December. The ECI has paused hearings only for voters not found by its central software system but who were listed in the hard copies of the 2002 electoral rolls. This pause does not apply to unmapped cases flagged by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) after on-ground verification. Sources in Agarwals office clarified, Though hearing notices may have been generated from the central software system for such cases, these electors should not be called for hearings, and the notices should be retained by the ERO/Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO). Officials noted that when poll authorities checked the hard copies of the 2002 rolls, they found that voters or their children marked as unmapped in the ECs software were actually present. In another development, the ECI has decided not to allow Booth Level Agents 2 (BLAs-2) of political parties inside hearing venues. The decision came after Trinamool Congress MLA Asit Majumder allegedly disrupted hearings in his Chinsurah constituency in Hooghly district, demanding the entry of a BLA-2. He reportedly clashed with the block development officer (BDO) over the issue. On Sunday, Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of the ruling Trinamool Congress, had instructed party BLAs to remain inside camps during hearings and warned of legal action if they were denied entry. Asit Majumder argued that BLAs-2 are meant to assist voters facing issues during SIR hearings. I demanded a BLA-2 should be allowed inside the camp so that any genuine voters name is not wrongly deleted from the electoral rolls during hearings, he said.
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