SIR forms digitisation: Bengal CEO bars contractual data entry operators

Kolkata: The office of the Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has instructed district electoral officers (DEOs) to ensure that contractual data entry operators are not engaged in digitising enumeration forms.

The CEO’s office has warned that strong action will be taken against any BDO, Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) found violating this directive.

According to officials, amid pressure from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to speed up uploading of enumeration forms, some BDOs, EROs and AEROs had begun involving data entry operators to assist booth level officers (BLOs). Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal has made it clear that engaging such operators against Commission guidelines will attract legal action. Employees of Bangla Sahayata Kendras (BSKs) are also barred from being involved in the work.

The CEO office had earlier proposed that the state government float a tender to hire data entry operators for the digitisation process, but the proposal was not approved. The Commission later suggested using permanent data entry operators from district magistrate offices, but the state has not given its consent.

Meanwhile, the CEO office has convened a meeting with telecom service providers following complaints from BLOs about server or network problems delaying digitisation of enumeration forms.

As per ECI reports, over 3.65 lakh enumeration forms have been digitised in Bengal, amounting to 47.72 per cent of the total forms distributed till Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday, BJP leader Jitendra Tewari complained to the Commission that some individuals had snatched enumeration forms from BLOs in Pandaveswar, West Burdwan, and uploaded them through the BLO app. Trinamool Congress MLA from Pandaveswar, Narendranath Chakraborty, refuted the allegation, calling it false and baseless.

The DEO of West Burdwan has ordered an inquiry into Tewari’s complaint.