SIR portal: Trinamool raises booth restructuring concerns

Malda: Issues of booth restructuring and data accuracy in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) dominated the all-party meeting in Malda, chaired by District Magistrate Preeti Goyal. While the Trinamool Congress (TMC) demanded clarity on the schedule for booth reorganisation, the Congress raised strong objections over recurring spelling errors appearing on the Election Commission’s SIR portal.

The meeting on Thursday afternoon was attended by representatives from the TMC, Congress, BJP and CPI(M), alongside Special Observer Tanmoy Chakraborty, former District Magistrate of Malda. Chakraborty conducted multiple rounds of discussions during the day, beginning with 12 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) who presented the progress of SIR-related work. Administrative sources said that “a major portion of Malda’s SIR process is nearly completed”.

The TMC was the first to raise concerns. Party spokesperson Ashis Kundu said they sought specific details regarding the upcoming booth-splitting exercise. “There are 3,106 booths in Malda. Any booth with more than 1,200 voters must be divided. We asked whether restructuring would take place after the draft voter list or only after the final list is published,” Kundu stated.

Officials later clarified that booth restructuring would begin after the publication of the draft electoral roll.

The Congress, meanwhile, highlighted a separate but significant issue. Former MLA Bhupendranath Haldar pointed out that even when voters fill out SIR forms with accurate spellings, the names appear incorrectly once uploaded. “We are seeing that spellings of names and surnames change on the portal despite correct entries on paper. This will force people to run around just to prove their own identity,” Haldar said. The party argued that such errors could create unnecessary hardship for ordinary citizens. Responding to the concerns, administrative officials assured that these spelling discrepancies would not cause major complications. “Minor spelling errors can be corrected and they should not disrupt the verification process,” an official said. Special Observer Chakraborty also informed political representatives that the Election Commission had extended the SIR deadline by seven days.

The district administration has stated that all concerns raised by political parties will be recorded and forwarded to the Election Commission.