Kolkata: The full bench of the Election Commission of India, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, warned poll officials in Bengal that District Electoral Officers (DEOs), Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral
Registration Officers (AEROs) must note that every document and decision related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) will be stored in the system for five years.
In another development, Bengal Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty, after being summoned by the ECI, met top poll officials in Delhi on Friday. During the hour-long meeting, the senior state official was reportedly asked to explain alleged non-compliance with several directives issued by the poll body. The discussions are learnt to have focused on the implementation of earlier orders concerning alleged irregularities in the electoral rolls. In August last year, following allegations of the enrolment of “ghost” voters, the ECI had ordered the suspension of two EROs and two AEROs in Baruipur in South 24-Parganas district and Moyna in East Midnapore district, and directed that first information reports (FIRs) be lodged at the respective police stations.
Meanwhile, the ECI full bench held a virtual meeting with Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal, the additional CEO, Special Rolls Observer Subrata Gupta, and DEOs, EROs and AEROs on Friday.
During a virtual meeting, the ECI also made it clear that if a foreigner is detected in the electoral rolls after one year, two years or even five years, the concerned officers will have to face prosecution.
The ECI also directed DEOs to personally verify all documents uploaded in the data entry system by February 16 and pulled up some district magistrates for negligence in verifying SIR-related documents.
The Commission also made a video presentation highlighting cases where invalid documents, such as newspaper clippings, blank pages and illegible images, had been uploaded into its data system.
SIR hearings have been completed in the state, and document verification is under way ahead of the publication of the final voters’ list on February 28. Sources said hearing notices were generated for 1,51,92,735 voters, based on documents already verified for 1.23 crore voters, while notices have yet to reach 3,55,679 voters.