The Election Commission of India (ECI) has appointed five additional Special Roll Observers for West Bengal, who will arrive to review the progress of the ongoing Special Summary Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The newly appointed observers are Kumar Ravi Kant Singh, IAS, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Defence (Works & Parliament Affairs), who will head the Presidency Division, Niraj Kumar Bansod, IAS, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, heading the Medinipur Division, Krishna Kumar Nirala, IAS, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, who is to head the Burdwan Division, Alok Tiwari, IAS, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, heading the Malda Division, and Pankaj Yadav, IAS, Joint Secretary, Department of Rural Development, who will head the Jalpaiguri Division.

These officers will monitor each stage of form verification, notices, counting and publication of the final voter list. So far, 7,66,23,690 forms have been distributed, of which 7,63,60,897 have been digitised.

The appointments come days after the ECI named Dr Subrata Gupta, retired IAS and former Secretary in the Union Ministry of Food Processing, as Special Roll Observer, along with 12 serving IAS officers of the West Bengal cadre for the SIR.

The SROs and IAS officers will work in coordination with West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal in Kolkata.