Kolkata: The hearing exercise is almost complete in three assembly constituencies — Bhowanipore, Rashbehari, and Ballygunge — all of which fall under the Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat, a senior EC official said on Saturday. In north Bengal, all hearings are complete in the Alipurduar, Falakata, and Madarihat constituencies.
"The roll observer in charge of Kolkata South informed me that hearing exercises are almost complete in the Bhowanipore, Rashbehari, and Ballygunge assembly constituencies. Similarly, hearing exercises are fully complete in the Alipurduar, Falakata, and Madarihat Assembly constituencies. DM Alipurduar informed me that, in these three seats, the work of uploading documents and disposing of cases is going on," the official said.
He also stated that the EC would accept documents from the electors even after Feb 4, in compliance with the Supreme Court's order. The Supreme Court, in its order, directed the EC to provide an additional 10 days from the date of displaying the logical discrepancies lists.
When asked about the progress of verification of documents submitted during the hearings, he replied: "It progressing fast. The MEA informed us that they will verify all the passports that were submitted by the electors by Monday. The ICSE board told us that all certificates issued by them are kept in DigiLocker. As the SC/ST certificates are issued by the DMs, they can verify those themselves."
Meanwhile, the EC instructed officials to deliver all hearing notices by Sunday 5 pm. "Till Friday, the figure of undelivered hearing notices stood at around 12-15 lakhs. A majority of those were delivered on Saturday, and by Sunday 5 pm, all notices will be delivered," the official claimed.
According to the instructions given by the Election Commission, micro-observers will be present at the hearing centres. Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal has instructed the DEOs to withdraw all micro-observers from the hearing centres by Sunday and assign them to the EROs and AEROs for scrutiny work. From now on, these micro-observers will be under the supervision of the roll observers.
"Previously, micro-observers were only engaged in verifying information at the hearing centres; now, from Monday, they will be involved in the scrutiny process. In this case, if any suspicious information is found in the data provided by the voters, the micro-observers, under the direction of the roll observers, will inform the EROs and AEROs," EC sources said.