Kolkata: Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal on Saturday started field visits to review poll preparedness and security arrangements on the ground.
Agarwal reached East Midnapore on Saturday late afternoon and held some important meetings to assess preparedness for the polls.
He will be staying in the district on Sunday and will hold some meetings with all concerned officials associated with the polls.
He is also scheduled to inspect administrative offices and verify if security measures are being implemented in accordance with the Commission’s guidelines.
As of Friday, nearly 57 lakh cases have been disposed of out of the total 60 lakh electors under adjudication by the roughly 700 judicial officers handling the process.
The Commission, on Saturday, published the 10th adjudication list. According to Commission sources, nearly 45 per cent of the adjudicated cases so far have been deleted.
Although the tribunal appeal process for aggrieved electors began nearly a week ago, the Commission has not yet announced any specific dates for its official commencement.
The Commission on Saturday issued a series of instructions for the district electoral officers (DEOs) for smooth management of the manpower database and tackling the shortfall of election staff, if any, during the elections.
The poll body has directed the DEO’s to make advance planning to engage manpower from neighbouring states, if required. For this purpose, they have been asked to create a surplus database.
The Commission has issued strict instructions against roping in any contractual employee for elections. Separate lists should be prepared for central and state employees who are being engaged for the polls, as per the Commission’s directions.
As per the Commission, all Central government and central PSU employees should be appointed as presiding officer and polling personnel as per their seniority, rank and pay scale.
There is no need to keep any micro observers at the district level. The poll body has further directed for engaging an optimum number of women polling parties and the requirement of women central forces to be assessed accordingly.
The poll body, for the first time, is making arrangements for depositing mobile phones of the voters at the polling booth. The Booth Level Officers should be engaged at the polling station for facilitating the deposit of mobiles at the polling venues.
Instructions have been issued to strictly adhere to the principle of ‘seniority’ within polling parties. The state CEO has further directed the DEOs to limit staff exemptions solely to cases of extreme urgency.
The state Home department has come out with good news for election officials. If anyone falls ill or meets with an accident while performing their duties, they will receive free medical treatment.
The state will bear all associated costs.
Meanwhile, in a statement on its X handle, the CEO’s office claimed that over the past few days, a good number of documents and letters have been submitted, and the majority of those are application forms pertaining to appeals by voters marked as ‘deleted’ in the final roll published on February 28.
The state CEO’s office, in a statement, clarified that the majority of the documents submitted at its office over the past few days are not Form-6 applications. Rather, these submissions primarily consist of applications or appeals filed by voters whose names were marked as ‘deleted’ or excluded in the final electoral roll published on February 28, 2024. It was further stated that, in accordance with the Representation of the People Act, 1950, such applications may be submitted to the District Magistrate or the Chief Electoral Officer. The CEO’s office completely denied submission of Form 6 applications and said that “the claim is being deliberately circulated”.
A Trinamool delegation that visited the CEO’s office on Friday had claimed that the CEO admitted receipt of Form 6 applications and would display district-wise Form 6 applications of voters who had been deleted in February.
Polling for all 294 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29, with counting scheduled for May 4.