ECI asks Bengal top cops to ensure full security for BLOs as SIR enters final phase
Kolkata: With West Bengal’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls entering its final stretch, the Election Commission of India (ECI) directed the state DGP and Kolkata Police Commissioner to ensure full security for Booth Level Officers and other field staff engaged in the exercise. The directive comes at a time when the state has already distributed 7,65,23,397 (99.85%) enumeration forms and digitised 7,03,29,384 (91.77%) of them, according to the EC’s latest bulletin. The Commission said the process must continue without fear, obstruction, or political pressure. In its communication to the state police, the Commission emphasised the need to create an environment where roll-revision staff can work freely. It expressed concern over incidents of intimidation, obstruction, and what it described as a “serious security breach” reported recently.
The EC underlined that any threat or influence on field-level officials compromises the integrity of the revision process, and directed police to act proactively to prevent such disruptions. To strengthen oversight, the EC has appointed retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta as Special Roll Observer for West Bengal. This move follows heightened scrutiny over the state’s roll-revision activities and aims to ensure on-ground compliance with EC norms. Alongside Gupta, 12 senior IAS officers have been deployed as Electoral Roll Observers across various districts.
Their mandate includes monitoring field progress, addressing grievances, and intervening wherever discrepancies or irregularities emerge. A high-level review meeting was held in Kolkata earlier on Saturday, attended by the Special Roll Observer, the 12 Roll Observers, District Election Officers (DEOs), and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs). The meeting assessed security arrangements, digitisation progress, and field-level challenges. At the conclusion of the meeting, officials stated that a single, unequivocal message has been delivered to all district authorities: “No eligible voter to be left out and no ineligible voter to be entered in the electoral roll.” The Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal and the Observers jointly stressed full accuracy, transparency, and neutrality in the process. Election officials said the number of flagged entries during the SIR now exceeds 35.23 lakh, including deceased, shifted, untraceable and duplicate records, forming the basis for the next phase of verification. They stressed that these are provisional flags, not deletions, and each will undergo mandatory ground verification before any final action.
