Kolkata: With the hearing session on the claims and objections to the draft voters’ list in West Bengal concluded and the scrutiny of the supporting identify documents scheduled to continue till February 21, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has identified five districts in the state where the instances of uploading of “unlisted” documents had been abnormally high so far.
The five districts are Cooch Behar, Malda, Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas, and South 24 Parganas. All five districts have international borders with Bangladesh, with South 24 Parganas mainly having coastal borders.
“Apart from these five states, where the instances of uploading of ‘unlisted’ documents being abnormally high, similar irregularities have been marginally high in East Burdwan and West Burdwan districts,” sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said.
He also said that the maximum uploading of “unlisted” documents have been detected in “logical discrepancy” cases, while similar irregularities in case of “unmapped” voters had been negligible as in case of “unmapped” voters.
“Unmapped” voters are those who were unable to establish any link either through “self mapping” or through “progeny mapping” with the voters’ list of 2002, the last time when the intention revision was conducted in West Bengal.
On the other hand, “logical discrepancy” cases are those where weird family trees have been detected in the course of “progeny” mapping.
“The Commission had once again cautioned the district magistrates, as well as the district electoral officers, to ensure that only the 13 listed documents are accepted as authentic identity proof documents. But even after that, such high instances of uploading of ‘unlisted’ documents to these districts have irked the Commission,” said the sources in the CEO’s office.
Incidentally, at a virtual full-bench meeting of the Commission on Friday, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the latter directed the DMs/DEOs that “unlisted” documents already uploaded in the system should be removed from the system by February 16.
The final voters’ list in West Bengal will be published on February 28. On March 1, a full bench of the ECI will undertake a two-day visit to West Bengal to assess the post-SIR scenario. Shortly after that, the ECI will announce the polling dates for the crucial assembly election in West Bengal scheduled later this year.
(IANS)
