Case 1: Muktibala Pramanik, 89, from East Burdwan’s Radhakrishnapur village, made a 12km trip to the Katwa I block office on Monday for a hearing as her name did not appear in the 2002 poll rolls. Muktibala can barely stand, let alone walk. Her grandson brought her to the BDO office in a van from their village.
Case 2: Kanai Sau, 75, from Jhargram’s Bhattogopalpur village, travelled around 10km on Monday morning in the biting cold to the hearing centre at the Gopiballabhpur block office. Despite his name featuring in the 2002 rolls, he was summoned for the hearing because of a spelling error. Sau, who came to the hearing centre with his son, said it was sheer harassment for an ailing person like him to travel in this December cold simply to correct a spelling.
The plight of Muktibala Pramanik and Kanai Sau is not unique, but since the hearing phase of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls began on Saturday, there has been an outpouring of complaints of harassment of voters, particularly those who are elderly, ill, preor those suffering from certain disabilities.
Though late by a couple of days, the Election Commission finally realised the impact of the complaints and issued detailed guidelines on Monday on conducting the hearings of aged, expecting mothers and seriously ill voters at their residences.
“Detailed guidelines have been issued to ensure that the hearing of voters aged 85 or more, those who are seriously ill or pregnant or have special needs could be done at places according to their convenience, mainly their homes. The hearings of these specific voters would be conducted in the last two weeks of the hearing and verification exercise that will continue till February 7,” said a senior poll panel official.
The official said voters unable to visit hearing centres can inform booth-level officers, the AERO or the ERO concerned regarding their inability to visit the hearing centres.
In case of voters who are seriously ill and admitted to the hospital, officials would visit the health facilities to hold hearings, if their relatives inform officials.
“The ERO or the AERO would take note of the voter’s inability to commute and fix a hearing date at their residences in the latter half of January or early February before the exercise is concluded on February 7,” added the official.
An official explained why the poll panel would not be able to conduct hearings at residences of such voters at an earlier date.
“The hearing can only be done by the AEROs or the EROs... In each of the Assembly segments, there are 10 AEROs and one ERO. All of them are extremely busy conducting hearings at the hearing centres, and can’t visit homes of the voters now. Once they are freed from holding hearings at the centres, they would visit residences of the voters to conduct hearings,” said the official.
A senior poll panel official said: “Those who can visit the hearing centres, they are always welcome. But those who cannot, don’t worry, as the EC would reach out to them. The EC will leave no stone unturned to include all eligible voters in the rolls.”
Sources said that the EC had earlier instructed that the hearing of voters aged over 85 years would be conducted at their residences.
However, district authorities could not implement the order earlier in the absence of clear guidelines, a district magistrate, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.
The EC served hearing notices to all unmapped voters who could not link themselves to the 2002 post-SIR rolls through self or progeny mapping in the first phase. “In the absence of clear guidelines, all such voters, including the aged and ailing ones, were being served hearing notices,” saidthe DM.
According to sources, several aged and ailing voters and some expecting mothers had turned up for hearings in several districts over the past two days. Many complained of severe hardships of the commute and having to wait for long hours for their turn at the hearingcentres.
“There were no seating arrangements or washroom facilities at most centres, causing problems for the aged and ailing voters. Now that the hearing would be conducted at their homes, they would be relieved,” said an official in the district.
An official in the CEO’s office in Calcutta said the situation would now be monitored from Calcutta. “If any aged voter is now forced to visit the hearing centre, district officials will face questions from the poll panel,” he said.
Additional reporting bySnehamoy Chakraborty