The Election Commission on Wednesday asked district magistrates, who are district election officers, to complete the work required for carrying out the special intensive review of the electoral rolls within seven days, while Mamata Banerjee came down heavily on Union home minister Amit Shah, saying the SIR was his game plan.
“This is all Amit Shah’s game. He behaves like he is the acting prime minister of the country. The PM knows everything. I am sorry to say so. We can only request him (Narendra Modi). Don’t trust Amit Shah so much. He will be your Mir Jafar one day,” said the chief minister on Wednesday at the Calcutta airport while returning from Siliguri.
“This is a horrible act from a horrible government… Their leader comes hereand says we will exclude lakhs of voters from Bengal,”she added.
The chief minister also said that the exercise could be carried out at a time when the state was yet to overcome the effects of the natural disaster that had hit the northern part of Bengal.
During a video conference with the south Bengal DMs on Wednesday, EC officials said that work like the completion of the mapping of 2002 and 2025 electoral rolls, training of booth-level officers (BLOs) to upload data on the EC network and preparation for printing enumeration forms needed to be completed within the next seven days.
The EC officials, led by deputy election commissioner Gyanesh Bharti, who is in charge of Bengal, said almost all other states completedthe basic work, like the mapping of the 2002 and 2025 rolls, but Bengal was yet to finish the task.
"The EC officials did not mention any possible dates for the SIR in Bengal, but hinted that the exercise would be carried out at the same time across the state, barring a few places which faced natural disasters recently. In all likelihood, the SIR could begin after the Diwali holidays, and that's why the poll panel is laying stress on completing the groundwork at the earliest," said a source.
Sources said that the EC officials laid maximum stress on the completion of the mapping of the 2002 and the 2025 electoral rolls at the earliest.
"This is important because it would show how many of the 2002 voters' names still figured in the 2025 voter list. Also, the mapping of the electoral rolls will identify the children of 2002 voters who were enrolled later. The 2002 voters would not be required to submit any document. Also, their children would not be required to submit any special document, except an identity card like Aadhar," said the source.
An official said that the groundwork for the mapping exercise in Bengal was almost completed.
"But the EC laid stress on the quick data compilation so that the poll panel gets a clear idea of how many voters whose names figured in the 2025 voters' list would qualify automatically," said an official.
The EC also laid stress on imparting training to the BLOs so that they can upload data on the EC network directly.
"This will enable the EC officials to monitor the progress of the mapping, or later, the SIR work in real time. The BLOs, who are acquainted with the system, can help other BLOs learn the procedure by making clusters of nearby BLOs," said a source.
Another official said the EC officials also laid stress on keeping arrangements ready to print enumeration forms at the district level.
"As the state has 7.62 crore voters' names on the electoral rolls in 2025, there would be a requirement of more than 15 crore forms as each voter would be provided with two forms each. One filled-in form would have to be submitted to the BLO, and the second copy would be kept by the electorate for future reference," said another source.
Sources on the poll panel said that most of the districts have the facility to print the enumeration forms.
"For the districts which don't have the facility to print the forms, forms would be printed in Calcutta and would be sent to the districts," said sources.
The EC officials said that the districts would have to print about 30 per cent of the required forms within four days after the schedule of the SIR was declared.