Tempers flared against the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across south Bengal on Tuesday with hearing centres vandalised and roads blocked.
The violence and lawlessness erupted a day after the Supreme Court issued a slew of directions to the Election Commission and the Bengal government to ensure that the ongoing SIR process in the state is conducted smoothly.
In Basanti’s Sonakhali, around 78 km south east of Kolkata in the Sunderbans, the hearing centre at the Kamatirtha government building was vandalised and a mob broke chairs and tables on Tuesday while the hearing process was on.
The mob also chased away the officials conducting the hearing.
Local residents alleged that the poll panel officials did not issue receipts against the documents submitted by the electors summoned for hearing.
The three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had on Monday clearly stated that the “officials receiving the documents/ hearing the affected person shall also certify the receiving of the documents/hearing.”
The residents of Sonakhli later burnt tyres and blocked the main road.
Similar roadblocks were also reported from Hooghly’s Polba, around 55 km north of Kolkata, and Dholahat, around 70 km south of Kolkata, and Barasat near Kolkata since Tuesday morning.
At Dholahat, the Dholahat-Ramganga road was blocked since Tuesday morning.
The Supreme Court bench had also directed the state government to ensure adequate manpower to the central and state poll panels for deployment at the hearing centres.
Last week, a block office in Murshidabad’s Farakka, around 300 km north of Kolkata, and another one in North Dinajpur’s Chakulia, around 221 km west of Kolkata, were vandalised and on-duty police personnel assaulted.
Former MP and state Congress former president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the Trinamool and the BJP were deliberately trying to create trouble in the state.
“The Trinamool wants only its voters to be included in the list,” he said. “The BJP also wants only its voters to remain in the electoral rolls. The people of Bengal are caught between these two forces.”
He said yesterday three Congress supporters in Murshidabad’s Jangipur were assaulted for going to submit a memorandum on the SIR process.
“The police, the polling officials all belong to the Trinamool. They themselves do not follow court orders. Adequate security arrangements have not been made. There are not enough centres for hearing. They are determined to destabilise the process,” the former MP said.