Bengal: DEC flags slow digitisation pace; EC to roll out AI checks in SIR

Kolkata: Senior Deputy Election Commissioner (DEC) Gyanesh Bharti on Tuesday voiced strong displeasure over the slow pace of digitising enumeration forms under the jurisdictions of District Election Officer (DEO) Kolkata North and DEO Kolkata South.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission is preparing to deploy artificial-intelligence-based verification tools in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of West Bengal’s electoral rolls to curb the entry of fake or deceased voters.

During Tuesday’s meeting, it was learnt that the DEC directed the Bengal CEO to take appropriate measures and appoint assistant booth-level officers (BLOs) to fast-track the digitisation process.

A team led by Bharti reached Kolkata in the morning and held a meeting with the DEOs of Kolkata North and Kolkata South in the presence of state CEO Manoj Agarwal and other senior officials of his office to take stock of the work associated with (SIR) Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

According to sources, during the meeting, the DFC learnt that less than 10 per cent digitisation has taken place in Kolkata, which is less than the state average of 14.24 per cent. The state CEO’s office has already set the ball rolling for engaging assistant BLOs as per DEC’s direction.

Later in the day, the DEC also took stock of the work progress of SIR with the DEO of South 24-Parganas. Three Assembly segments — Kasba, Behala Purba, and Behala Paschim come under the Kolkata South Parliamentary Constituency.

“The enumeration forms are being digitised so that all information, document, signature, name, and other details are stored for record in digital form, which will enable the Commission to trace the person who has given any false information, declaration or verification,” said a senior official at the CEO office.

According to a BLO working in north Kolkata, uploading data from the manually written forms to the BLO App is taking around 20 minutes.

The ECI team will take stock of the SIR work progress in Nadia and Murshidabad on Wednesday and will take up the same exercise at Malda on Thursday.

The team will organise a First Level Checking (FLC) workshop for Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) on November 21 and will then leave New Delhi.

This is the second visit of the ECI team to West Bengal during the ongoing SIR. A three-member delegation led by DEC Bharti had earlier visited the state between November 5 and 8, soon after the House-to-House Enumeration phase began on November 4.