Kolkata: The Election Commission of India has made it clear to the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of 12 poll-bound states and union territories where SIR exercise is going on in full swing to check the enumeration forms in four steps to ensure that illegitimate voters do not make into the electoral roll.
Meanwhile, IAS officers — Vandana Pokhrial, Commissioner Howrah Municipal Corporation, and Divya Murugesan, ADM, Howrah — have been posted as Joint CEO.
The ECI held a virtual meeting with the CEOs of the poll-bound states and UTs on Friday. The EROs have been asked to first use DSE software for identifying bogus voters and use ‘photo similar entry’. Another software to detect whether the name of a particular voter exists in two or more booths.
The third layer of checking should be with the Aadhaar database and the fourth layer should be through death certificates to ensure that not a single dead voter figures
in the electoral roll.
In some states, there is a national database of the deceased persons. In case of Bengal, this should be verified through names appearing in different social security schemes, particularly Somobyathi project that provides financial assistance to poor families for funeral rites and burial expenses of the deceased.
According to sources, Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal will hold a meeting with the DEOs on Saturday to communicate the message of the ECI.
From Thursday, the state CEO office is being able to view the suspicious voter records within their respective jurisdictions through DSE software. Within the next two days, all district DEOs will also be given access to the software for monitoring suspicious entries across the entire district. The state CEO’s office will have visibility across the state.