The Election Commission (EC) on Friday approved a proposal to engage central government employees as electoral roll micro-observers in Bengal, and said they would verify documents submitted by voters, who would be called for a hearing.
The move shows that the poll panel is not ready to depend entirely on state government officials for verifying the documents of suspicious voters, whose enumeration forms were found to have discrepancies.
“The way central government officers in group B or above categories would be given the responsibility to check the documents of the voters to be called for hearing and verification shows that the EC is trying to cut down dependency on the state government officials. This is apparently because the EC felt that the state government officials might have to work under tremendous political pressure, which could come in the way of taking a logical decision,” said a senior official of the poll panel.
About 32 lakh voters could not link themselves with the 2002 electoral rolls through self or progeny mapping. These voters would be called in for verification of documents.
Moreover, 1.67 crore voters were placed in the suspicious category after discrepancies were detected in their enumeration forms. Many of them could be called for the hearing and the verification of their papers.
“As the fates of so many voters would depend on the outcome of the hearing and verification of documents that would continue for about 45 days starting next week, the entire exercise is very crucial for the poll panel. The EC is not ready to depend entirely on the state government officials at the district level since the ruling party was opposing the SIR from the very beginning,” said a source.
According to the plan, a total of 3,069 AEROs and 294 EROs will conduct the hearing and the verification of documents during the second phase of the SIR. As these officials would dispose of the cases after the hearing, the decisions needed to be perfect.
“The micro-observers can check the documents, and if they find any anomalies, they can report them to the CEO or the electoral roll observers deployed by the EC earlier. They would be able to observe the proceedings at the hearing. If they find any deviation or discrepancy in the preparation or the revision of the electoral rolls, they would also report to the CEO or electoral roll observers,” said an official.
The micro-observers — who would be brought in from the banks and several central PSUs — will work till the publication of final rolls on February 14 next year, and would get a consolidated remuneration of ₹30,000 each for the period they would be engaged with the EC.
Sources said that during the period of their engagement with the EC, the micro-observers would remain under deemed deputation to the EC. The CEO of Bengal would prepare a database of such officials and organise training for them, and deploy them in various Assembly segments.