Kolkata: The Election Commission urged officials in Bengal to expedite the digitisation process of SIR enumeration forms and complete the exercise by the Dec-4 deadline, if not earlier. Over 33% forms were uploaded till 6 pm on Friday.
Seven BLOs were sent show-cause notices on Thursday for delay.
An EC team, led by senior deputy EC Gyanesh Bharti, on Friday instructed officials to start planning for SIR hearings, to be conducted after Dec 9, the date slated for the publication of the draft SIR roll. Once the roll is published, electoral registration officers will call residents for hearing if any anomaly is found in their data, such as their names missing from the last SIR roll of 2002 and no parental link, or any other reason, as prescribed by the EC.
The instructions were issued during a workshop on EVMs and VVPATs for the assembly election, slated for Bengal next year. "We discussed the progress of SIR and digitisation of SIR forms. The EC team raised queries about the problems they faced. The exercise must be finished within the timeline," said Manoj Agarwal, chief electoral officer, Bengal.
According to an official, the EC team made it clear that all enumeration forms should be uploaded by Dec 4, informally asking DMs to complete digitisation by Nov 25. "The EC team instructed DEOs (DMs) to finish it ahead of the deadline so that post-digitisation work, such as publication of the draft SIR rolls and hearings, progress smoothly," the official added.
Commending BLOs, Agarwal said, "BLOs are visiting door to door to distribute and collect enumeration forms and also digitising the data. They are doing a great job and discharging their constitutional duties." About grievances that some BLOs were not working according to rules, he said, "A couple among 1 lakh BLOs might not be working properly. But 99% BLOs are working hard day and night. The SIR drive is completely dependent on them."
Asked if he got a report on a Malbazar BLO's suicide, allegedly due to SIR-related work pressure, Agarwal said, "The DM said cop and post-mortem reports had not arrived yet. Once ready, we will send them to the EC."