A deleted voter from Metiabruz went to the neighbourhood ration dealer a couple of days ago. He saw a notice pasted on the wall stating that deleted voters must visit the "ration office". The dealer warned him that his card might be deactivated.
A deleted voter from Murshidabad was told to wait before the application for his daughter's delayed birth registration could be processed.
A voter from South Dinajpur who was deleted has been facing regular taunts from some residents. A holding centre is awaiting her, the woman keeps hearing.
The SIR has taken away the voting rights of multitudes. Now, many of them fear exclusion from welfare schemes and civic services in the coming days.
More than 200 voters deleted from the revised electoral rolls joined a mass convention at a Sealdah hall on Saturday afternoon. They came from across the state, from Cooch Behar to the Sundarbans.
Many spoke briefly about their ordeal. All have approached a tribunal seeking restoration of their voting rights, but none have been called for a hearing. They still do not know why their names were deleted from the electoral rolls or when they will get an opportunity to present their case before the tribunal.
The convention was organised by a platform of rights activists formed in the run-up to the Assembly elections.
A man removed from the revised electoral rolls of Metiabruz was one of the speakers. The name printed on his voter card has a dot after the prefix to his name. The other documents — passport, Aadhaar and ration card included — do not have the dot after the prefix.
He has filed an appeal with the tribunal and is awaiting a hearing.
"A couple of days ago, I went to the neighbourhood ration dealer. A notice posted outside the shop said deleted voters must contact the ration office. The dealer warned me that my card might get deactivated. We feel helpless. Not getting subsidised food is not the only thing scaring us. What about our children?" asked the man.
The Suvendu Adhikari government has launched a drive to weed out "ineligible and ghost beneficiaries" of the food and supplies department's cheap grain scheme. The order clarified that those 63 lakh people, whose names were deleted from the electoral roll during the SIR, should be identified and their ration cards deactivated.
The order also stated that the ration cards of those who applied for citizenship under the CAA or appealed before the tribunals after their names were deleted from the voter list should be kept active until their pleas were disposed of.
On Saturday, a sizeable section of the deleted voters was women.
A 34-year-old woman, removed from the revised electoral rolls of South Dinajpur, said that taunts have become an almost daily occurrence.
"Some locals keep passing snide remarks that I will be sent to a holding centre and then pushed back to Bangladesh. I have one simple question for the authorities. My parents, husband and other relatives have retained their voting rights. Then, how is it possible that I am an invalid voter?" asked the woman.
A voter from Murshidabad whose name was deleted from the electoral roll said a mismatch of a single letter in his father's name between the 2002 and 2025 rolls led to his exclusion.
A few months ago, he visited the local civic body to obtain a birth certificate for his daughter, who was born in 2018.
"She was born at the family home during an emergency. We did not have time to go to a hospital. Now, I am told that the application cannot be processed because I am a deleted voter," said the man, who teaches history in a private school.
"Most voters deleted after adjudication do not know the reason for the exclusion. This violates the fundamental tenet of jurisprudence and the principle of natural justice," said Samim Ahammed, a lawyer and rights activist.
The organisers, Sangrami Ganamamncha, noted that if the tribunals worked at the current pace, it would take "20 years" to dispose of the pending applications.
"We have lined up a series of events to galvanise deleted voters. Mass protest seems the only way. On September 2, we will give a mass deputation to the chief justice of Calcutta High Court, demanding that the tribunals be expedited," said Kushal Debnath, convenor of the platform.