A flurry of activity marked the campus of a central institute near IIM Joka on Tuesday afternoon. Men ferried chairs up and down staircases, two others were setting up LAN ports to connect devices across the network, while a third unpacked a colour printer and photocopier.
The institute, the Syama Prasad Mookerjee National Institute of Water and Sanitation (SPM-NIWAS), on the southwestern fringes of the city, is being readied to host all 19 tribunals, headed by retired high court judges, which will decide the fate of disenfranchised voters.
The institute was opened in 2022 to “enhance access to safe drinking water and sanitation across India”. It provides training and capacity building for improved water supply and sanitation, said an official.
When Metro visited the campus on April 1, it was sleepy and mostly deserted. The main gate was locked, and security guards did not let outsiders in.
By Tuesday, the centre was being readied on a war footing, possibly a little too late for many.
The voter rolls for the first phase of polling (April 23) were frozen on Monday, April 6. For the second phase (April 29), the rolls are set to freeze on Thursday, April 9.
The institute’s ground and first floors have been earmarked for the tribunals, sources said. At least two first-floor rooms displayed boards naming their future occupants — two retired chief justices of Calcutta High Court. Other rooms will soon carry similar plates, a worker said.
Larger rooms have been designated as meeting rooms. “We are setting up Wi-Fi for more than 150 desktop computers,” said a worker. An electrician said over 250 new plug points had been set up, and 11 ACs were installed temporarily.
On the ground floor, a team of sweepers with brooms was at work.
Outside, a row of cars — many with PWD stickers — remained parked. The agency is overseeing the infrastructure set-up, said sources. A PWD official declined to comment.
The SPM-NIWAS campus, covering more than eight acres on Diamond Harbour Road between Joka and Pailan, falls under the Bishnupur block in South 24-Parganas, around 18km from central Calcutta. It functions under the Union ministry of Jal Shakti.
In a March 20 notification, the Election Commission announced the names of 19 retired judges who would head the tribunals with assigned districts. However, a later Supreme Court order directed all the tribunals to sit in Calcutta.
So far, none of the 19 tribunals has heard a case from an ordinary voter. Under Supreme Court directives, they have only dealt with two special, urgent cases, both involving election candidates who have since been cleared.