SIR in Bengal: Four new special roll observers assigned specific tasks

The four additional roll observers appointed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to review the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal have been tasked to focus on two specific assignments. 

The first assignment is to conduct a check of the identity documents furnished by the "logical discrepancy" voters in the course of hearing sessions on the claims and objections on the draft voters' list, and certify whether these documents are valid or not.

Sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said that initially the Commission had directed two-stage checking of the identity documents in case of "logical discrepancy", the first by the electoral registration officers (ERO) and subsequently by the District Magistrates, who are also the District Electoral Officers.

However, according to sources in the CEO's office, there will be a three-stage checking of these documents now. The special roll observers will conduct final stage checking.

The second assignment for these four special roll observers will be to ensure that the micro-observers appointed by the ECI to ensure smooth functioning of the hearing session are following the poll panel's guidelines.

"The Commission had received inputs that some of the micro-observers are not performing their duties during the hearing session as per the guidelines set for them by the ECI. Hence, the special observers have been asked to supervise the functioning of the micro-observers. The only aim is to ensure that the name of a single genuine voter remains included and the name of a single bogus voter is excluded," sources in the CEO's office said.

On Saturday, the ECI announced the appointment of four more special electoral roll observers for West Bengal.

The four additional special roll observers are all serving Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, with three of them currently serving in the national capital, New Delhi, and the fourth serving in Tripura.

The four special roll observers for West Bengal, whose appointments were announced by the Commission on Saturday, are Ratan Biswas, Vikas Sinha, Sailesh, and Sandeep Rathore.

Incidentally, on Saturday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in the state is being carried out with the sole objective of deleting and excluding names of existing voters, rather than correcting errors or including new voters.