Amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, around 14 lakh SIR enumeration forms in West Bengal have so far been marked as ‘uncollectable’, the Election Commission said.
The official said these voters were either absentee, duplicate, died or moved permanently. “As of Tuesday noon, the number stood at 13.92 lakh,” he said. “We expect this number to grow every day as more updates come out.” This figure has grown sharply from 10.33 lakh on Monday night.
The official noted that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have been actively involved in distributing the forms and collecting the required information. More than 80,600 BLOs supported by about 8,000 Supervisors, 3,000 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers and 294 Electoral Registration Officers have been deployed for the SIR process.
“Chaotic, pushy and dangerous”
CM Mamata Banerjee on Thursday sent a strongly worded letter to CEC Gyanesh Kumar urging him to immediately end the exercise, which she termed as “chaotic, coercive and dangerous”.
Banerjee said she had “time and again” raised concerns over the ongoing Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state and now felt “compelled to write” to the Chief Election Commissioner as the situation had reached a “deeply alarming stage”.
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She alleged that the SIR in Bengal is being run in an “unplanned, dangerous” manner that has “crippled the process from day one”.
The Chief Minister accused the Election Commission of imposing SIR on officials and citizens “without basic preparation, adequate planning or clear communication”, pointing out that large gaps in training, confusion over mandatory documents and the “near impossibility” of BLOs meeting voters during working hours made the exercise “structurally inappropriate”.
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Banerjee asked the CEC to “act decisively” to stop the ongoing process, stop “coercive” measures, ensure proper training and support and “thoroughly review” the current methodology and timelines.
She warned: “If this path is not corrected immediately, the consequences for the system, officials and citizens will be irreversible,” calling it a moment that calls for “responsibility, humanity and decisive corrective action.”
In a three-page letter, one of her strongest to date, she described cabin-level officers as being stretched “far beyond human capacity”.
“They are expected to manage their core responsibilities, many of which are teachers and frontline workers, while conducting door-to-door surveys and handling complex electronic submissions,” she said, adding that most struggled with online forms due to a lack of training, server failures and repeated data mismatches.
Key things
- Around 14 thousand SIR enumeration forms have so far been identified as “uncollectable” in West Bengal, the Election Commission said.
- According to the official, these voters were either absentee, duplicate, dead or permanently displaced.
