The names of at least 5 lakh voters are likely to be deleted from the electoral roll during the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal as they have not responded to hearing notices so far, officials said.
According to the Election Commission’s pre-announced schedule, the hearing process was to conclude on Saturday.
However, state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal has directed the officials concerned to continue with hearings in many districts where they have not been completed. He has asked all the district electoral officers-district magistrates (DEO-cum-DMs) to submit data on the pending hearings and proposed to the EC to extend the hearing date till February 14.
In that case, the final list will be published on February 21.
According to ECI sources, nearly 20 of a total of the state’s 294 Assembly constituencies have pending hearings. These constituencies with pending hearings are in North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Kolkata, Malda and Darjeeling districts.
The district administrations of South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas and Malda have already requested the CEO to extend the hearing schedule, it is learnt.
A senior EC official said, “All notices have been sent. The last date of hearing was February 7 and the final electoral roll was scheduled to be published on February 14. If the hearings are extended, the publishing date of the final list will be extended accordingly.”
The SIR hearings in the state started on December 27.
Since the process took off slowly, the number of officers and hearing centres was eventually increased. As a result, the volume of daily hearings also went up.
Besides, the EC was strict about documentation in the beginning only to relax the process later.
In the last few days, 5-7 lakh voters have been heard on a daily basis in the state. In the first phase of the SIR, the names of at least 58 lakh voters were deleted from the draft roll published by the EC on December 16. According to the CEO’s office, 92.40% names have been retained in the draft roll.
A total of 7,66,37,529 electors were enrolled in the state’s voter list as of October 27, before the SIR exercise started. Of them, 7,08,16,630 names featured in the draft voters’ list and 58,20,899 were dropped on grounds of being absent, shifted, dead and duplicate, the CEO’s office shared. Of the total deletions, 24.16 lakh electors were identified as deceased, 32.65 lakh electors as shifted and absent, and 1.38 lakh electors having enrollment in multiple places.