During voter list revision in West Bengal, the Election Commission declared 14 lakh SIR forms as “non-collectible”. Reason: Absent, deceased, duplicate or shifted voter. The number is increasing daily and till now three BLOs have also died.
Kolkata. At present, the work of updating the voter list is going on in full swing in West Bengal. But meanwhile, a report of the Election Commission has attracted everyone’s attention. According to the report, so far 14 lakh SIR forms have been received in the state which are considered non-collectible. This figure is surprising, because non-availability of voter information on such a large scale raises many questions.
Why were 14 lakh SIR forms found ‘not collected’?
The Election Commission says that these SIR forms could not be collected because either the voters were not present at the addresses where the Booth Level Officer (BLO) reached, or they had shifted somewhere else, or they had died. In many cases, BLOs found voters who were duplicate entries i.e. the name of the same voter was included in the list twice or at the wrong address.
Is the number of absentee and duplicate voters higher than expected?
The biggest thing is that just a day ago on Monday this figure was 10.33 lakh. But in just 24 hours this number increased to 13.92 lakh. This surge shows that as teams go into the field, the number of “non-traceable” forms that cannot be collected is continuously increasing.
How did the death of the BLO highlight the difficulty of the process?
At present, in West Bengal, more than 80,600 BLOs, about 8,000 supervisors, about 3,000 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AERO) and 294 Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) are together doing the work of this SIR revision. Teams are going door-to-door collecting information, distributing forms and verifying the data of every voter. But during this process, a tragic incident has also come to light – three BLOs have died so far in the state. His death amidst constant field work, travel and pressure has brought to the fore the difficulty of this entire revision campaign.
What do the rapidly rising SIR figures indicate?
Now the biggest question arising is what is the meaning of voter forms not being received on such a large scale? Was there a major discrepancy in the voter list in the state? Is such a data change a sign of some major decision before the elections? And will it affect the upcoming election process? As the SIR update is progressing, the figures are also increasing daily. The Election Commission says that the real picture will emerge only after the entire process is over.