The Election Commission has decided to conduct hearings of voters under CCTV coverage once the enumeration process is complete and draft rolls published.
CCTV camera-recorded hearings will help make the exercise free of political interference, the poll panel hopes.
Sources said that high-end CCTV cameras would be installed in the halls where voter hearing and verification would be held.
“The decision was taken after it was found that many block-level officers (BLOs) and other officials involved in the SIR process had to work under tremendous political pressure. Now, as the EC wanted to ensure error-free electoral rolls, the hearing and verification exercise would be monitored closely from the office of the chief election officer (Manoj Kumar Agarwal),” said a senior official.
According to the revised schedule of the SIR exercise, enumeration forms would be submitted till December 11 and draft rolls published on December 16.
From December 16, voters who have not been able to establish their links with the 2002 electoral rolls, will be called for hearings.
“Those whose figure in the 2002 rolls (the poll panel’s baseline) or whose parents did would not be called for the hearing. But those who have no links with the 2002 rolls will have to attend the hearing and establish their claims by submitting the required documents,” said a source.
A section of the officials said the hearing and verification process would be conducted in all the 341 block offices and some municipal corporation areas.
“The EC has asked the DMs to send a detailed list of the halls where the hearing would be conducted. Once the lists reach the EC, the order to install CCTV cameras would be issued. In all likelihood, there would be around 400 hearing centres,” said a source.
The entire hearing process will be closely monitored from the CEO’s office, as it is being apprehended that there would be severe political pressure on officials conducting the hearing to exclude or include ineligible voters.
“The way the ruling party (the Trinamool Congress) is opposing the exercise, it is almost certain that they would put pressure on the officials so that no name is excluded. On the other hand, the BJP would definitely try to exclude some names that they feel are ineligible,” said a source.
“This is why the exercise would be monitored closely to ensure that the officials can work freely to prepare error-free rolls,” he added.
Sources said that going by the enumeration data so far uploaded by the BLOs, it is being estimated that one crore voters could not link their names with the 2002 rolls. They will be called for hearing, a mammoth task given the numbers.
Sources said that the BLOs, electoral registration officers (EROs) and their assistants have been under tremendous political pressure during the enumeration process, which is why it is being apprehended that the hearings would also not be free from political interference.
Apart from the upcoming hearings, the EC was also focusing on the verification of the documents to be submitted by the voters.
“In each area, there will be nodal officers of each department to verify documents and submit reports within three days. Verification of documents is important because based on them a voter would be included in or excluded from the electoral roll,” said a source.
The EC is being cautious about document verification. Complaints have come up that several documents such as birth and caste certificates were issued by local bodies in the past few months, sources said.