SIR in Bengal: ECI requests that DMs and DEOs verify the legitimacy of the papers from hearing sessions
SIR in Bengal: As part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has established the multi-prong accountability of the District Magistrates (DMs) and District Electoral Officers (DEOs) for verifying the authenticity of the supporting identity documents that the voters summoned for the ongoing hearing sessions on the claims and objections on the draft voters’ list must provide.
The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, the Deputy Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Bharati, and other senior ECI officials met with the DMs and DEOs on Tuesday to establish accountability in the case and provide directions appropriately.
DMs and DEOs will have access to a unique app that will allow them to verify the validity of supporting identification papers, certify them, and upload them.The Commission has previously instructed that the supporting papers be authenticated at two levels: first by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and subsequently by DMs, also known as DEOs. According to sources in the CEO’s office, “the Commission has now decided to bring the DMs and DEOs under a particular system in order to finally check the authenticity and then clear those documents as authentic.”
Second, the DMs and DEOs will only be able to accept the 13 identification papers that the Commission has designated as legitimate identity documents.
According to sources in the CEO’s office, the DEO in question will need to get prior clearance from the ECI in rare circumstances when alternative papers may be approved as identification documents.
The DEOs have also been held responsible, which means that during hearings on claims and objections on the draft voters’ list, no booth-level agent (BLA) from any political party is permitted.
In the event that any political leaders violently halt the hearing process in the future, the DEOs will be held responsible. As was the case earlier in the day, the Commission had directed the DEOs to personally visit the hearing location going forward in the event that a forcible session termination was reported.
It has also been learned that the DEOs involved would be held responsible if the Commission later discovers that a counterfeit document was mistakenly accepted as authentic owing to a willful failure to detect.
The Commission’s remarks may potentially harm the clearance authorities’ Annual Confidential Report (ACR) if there are intentional mistakes.
On December 16, the draft list of voters was released. On February 14 of the following year, the final voter list will be released. Polling dates for West Bengal’s important Assembly elections, which are set for next year, will be announced shortly by the ECI.