SIR: Alleging efforts to remove the names of legitimate voters, Bengal AERO resigns from work relating

SIR: After an Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) involved in West Bengal’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise resigned from the exercise, controversy broke out. The AERO claimed that attempts were being made to remove the names of several legitimate voters from the voters’ list by classifying them as “logical discrepancy” cases.

Voters who were found to have unusual family tree data during progeny mapping are referred to as logical discrepancy cases.

Mausum Sarkar, the AERO of the Bagnan Assembly constituency, submitted his resignation letter to the concerned ERO, Achintya Kumar Mandal, claiming that these logical contradictions are part of a plot to exclude a significant portion of the nation’s marginalized population. He asked to be released from his responsibilities regarding the SIR.

He sent the letter on Thursday, and when ERO Achintya Kumar Mandal confirmed receiving it and said that he had transferred it to the higher authorities, the issue was revealed on Friday night.

Mausum Sarkar works as an officer in Bagnan Block No.’s Block Disaster Management Department. II. There are over 24,000 cases in Bagnan Block No. II, and the hearing on logical disparities is set to start on January 14.

Prior to this hearing, Mausum Sarkar requested to be released from his AERO responsibilities.

“The spelling errors in names mentioned in the logical discrepancies were present in the 2002 electoral roll, but later, ordinary citizens corrected them by filling out Form 8 according to the rules of the Election Commission of India,” he said in his letter. For this reason, variations in name spelling are being discovered. The same is true with age-related mistakes.

Mausum Babu briefed local media about this issue, saying, “As a responsible citizen, I believe there is no sense in this kind of logical discrepancy.” The goal of this action is to invalidate the ballots of a sizable portion of the populace, including members of marginalized populations. They don’t have the twelve papers needed to resolve the logical inconsistency. They have ration cards, voter cards, and Aadhaar cards, but they are not being acknowledged, which will cause problems for a certain class of people and many members of marginalized groups.”

P. Deepap Priya, the Howrah District Magistrate, refuses to comment on the situation.