Kolkata: The full bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI) will hold a crucial virtual meeting with all the top electoral officers in West Bengal, as well as the district magistrates and the district electoral officers, on Friday, ahead of the phase of the scrutiny of voters’ identity documents starting from Saturday.
The extended deadline for completing hearings on claims and objections to the draft voters’ list in the state will end on Saturday. The phase of the scrutiny of voters’ identity documents submitted at the hearing session will continue till February 21.
However, in the meantime, the micro-observers engaged by the ECI for the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) have flagged several instances of deviations from the Commission-set guidelines regarding acceptance of only ECI-listed documents as supporting identity documents during the hearing sessions.
“So this will be a major point in the agenda of the virtual meeting today, starting from 11 a.m., and the Commission is expected to remind all electoral officers concerned once again about the guidelines regarding the treatment of only 13 ECI-listed documents as authentic identity proof,” an insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said.
At the same time, he added, the ECI at the virtual meeting is also expected to ask the CEO’s office to issue show-cause notices to the electoral registration officers (EROs) and the assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) accepting “unlisted” documents, ignoring the Commission’s repeated reminders about accepting only 13 listed documents.
Another important agenda of the virtual meeting, the CEO’s office insider said, will be the finalisation of the list of housing complexes in the state where temporary polling booths will be set up for the Assembly elections in West Bengal scheduled this year.
The CEO’s office has already identified 78 such housing complexes and has also forwarded the list to ECI’s headquarters in New Delhi.
The third important agenda of the meeting will be a discussion on the number of phases for the West Bengal Assembly polls. The CEO’s office has already sent a proposal to the ECI’s headquarters for a single-phase poll this time, while maintaining that the final decision in the matter will rest with the Commission.
The final voters’ list in West Bengal will be published on February 28, ending an eventful SIR in the state. On March 1, the full bench of the ECI will come for a two-day visit to West Bengal to take a stock of the situation in the post-SIR scenario in the state. Soon after that, the ECI will announce the polling dates for the Assembly elections.
(IANS)
