Kolkata: The introduction of a new feature — BLO-BLA MOM (Minutes of meeting) — on the BLO app just 24 hours before the completion of the SIR exercise in the state left booth-level officers confused on Wednesday. This is the 10th addition to the mobile application ever since its rollout. Multiple BLOs and voters have questioned the Election Commission's flip-flop on the functioning of the SIR exercise as the frequent tweaks of norms through new features were leading to "unnecessary hassles".
The new option aims at involving both the BLOs and booth-level agents (BLAs) of different political parties in enumerating the data of the electors in ASDD (absentee, shifted, dead and duplicate) category. It came at a time when BLOs, AEROs and EROs are on their toes to ensure the accuracy of entries. On Monday, the EC had added the ninth feature – duplicate elector verification — to the app.
"Had the EC introduced the BLO-BLA MOM feature at least a week back, we could have done the verification of the absentee, shifted, dead voters and duplicate forms seamlessly. Now that we are already keeping our fingers crossed to finish the accurate enumeration by Thursday, the new feature that calls for the involvement of both BLOs and BLAs in the uploading work triggered fresh confusion," said a BLO in south Kolkata.
Even as there is no instruction from the EC, some BLOs stated that they were collecting and undertaking from progeny voters whose names are not found in the 2002 list but were aged above 18 years. The BLOs said they're doing this for their "safety" as the EC has warned of action in case of any deliberate inaccurate information.
"One of such voters told me that he was in another state for higher studies and did not get his name enlisted in the 2002 electoral roll. To be on the safe side, I have got a self-declaration from the voter so that if any problem occurs, I can show it to the commission," said a BLO in Tollygunge.
The EC has expressed its concern over the high percentage of progeny mapping in several booths in Bengal and instructed the officials to scrutinise the voters' data thoroughly in those polling stations.
"This situation doesn't arise if the EC had made submission of documents mandatory for the voters whose names are not mentioned in the last SIR roll. The EC also lately decided to deploy roll observers in Bengal," sources said.
Swapan Mandal, general secretary of Votekarmi And BLO Aikya Mancha, an outfit of BLOs, stated: "The BLO-BLA MOM feature should have been added much earlier. Why has it been done at the last moment?"