Kolkata: Political tensions continue to simmer in West Bengal amid the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, as the final voter list is set to be published on February 28 in line with Supreme Court directives.
West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal confirmed on Thursday that the list will be released on schedule, but with special markings to address ongoing cases and deletions.
Agarwal explained that the final roll will include two additional features beyond the standard format. Entries where adjudication is still pending will be marked “Pending judicial decision,” while names already removed will carry the label “Deleted.”
He noted that the total voter turnout figure in the state stands at approximately 60,06,675, reflecting the scale of the exercise.
To accelerate the verification process for voters flagged with logical discrepancies, the Calcutta High Court has sought assistance from 200 judicial officers, with 100 each drawn from the Odisha High Court and the Jharkhand High Court. These officers will join the existing team handling document scrutiny and adjudication.
The decision emerged from a high-level meeting chaired by Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujoy Paul, attended by key officials including Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal, Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty, Acting Director General of Police Piyush Pandey, Kolkata Police Commissioner Supratim Sarkar, and Special Roll Observer Subrata Gupta.
The SIR represents a major effort by the Election Commission to cleanse the voter list in West Bengal, prompted by millions of claims and objections received during the process.
The Supreme Court and Calcutta High Court have played active roles in expediting the work, including authorising the deployment of additional judicial officers from neighboring states to verify over 8 million claims efficiently.
The Supreme Court has ruled that if full verification cannot be completed by February 28, the final roll should still be published on that date, with any remaining cases addressed through supplementary lists issued thereafter.
These supplementary additions will be treated as integral to the final roll. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee approached the Supreme Court with a petition challenging aspects of the process, but the court permitted the SIR to proceed.
(IANS)
