ECI reviews SIR in Bengal ahead of delegation visit

Kolkata: Ahead of a high-level Election Commission of India (ECI) delegation’s visit to Bengal on November 18, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner (DEC) Gyanesh Bharti on Saturday held a video conference to review the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal, senior officials of the CEO’s office and all 26 District Election Officers (DEOs) attended the meeting.

An ECI team led by Bharti is scheduled to arrive in Kolkata on November 18 to assess the progress of the SIR and participate in the First Level Checking (FLC) workshop for Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) on November 21.

During the four-day visit, the team will review SIR-related work in Kolkata, South 24-Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad and Malda.

According to the CEO’s office, a separate meeting with DEOs and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) of Kolkata North, Kolkata South and South 24 Parganas will also be held on November 18 for district-specific assessments. CEO Manoj Agarwal, along with Additional, Joint and Deputy CEOs, will take part.

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

The House-to-House distribution of Enumeration Forms, considered the most crucial stage of the SIR, will continue until December 4.

Meanwhile, till 8 pm on Sunday, 7.61 crore enumeration forms that account for 99.42 per cent of the total electors were distributed. As many as 54.27 lakh enumeration forms have been digitised.