The Election Commission has decided to conduct an audit of all hearing and verification cases daily in an attempt to prepare error-free electoral rolls in Bengal.
“The EC has decided to monitor each of the hearing and verification cases in Bengal closely, as it is apprehended that the officials who will be carrying out the hearings could be put under tremendous political pressure during the entire exercise. An audit of all the hearing and verification cases would ensure error-free electoral rolls in the state,” said a source.
According to sources, it appeared that more than one crore people could be called for the hearing and the verification of their documents, as discrepancies were found in their enumeration forms. There could be more than 3,000 centres where the hearing and the verification of documents would be carried out every day.
“We will depute central government employees as micro-observers at all these centres to monitor the exercise. Besides, an audit of all cases, including examining the documents produced by the voters, will be done by the IT team in the Nirvachan Sadan on a day-to-day basis. Based on the recommendations of the IT team, the poll panel will take the final call,” said an official.
The sources said that the decision to monitor the hearing and the verification of voters in Bengal rigorously was taken after it was noticed that the officials who had carried out the enumeration process in Bengal had to work under political pressure.
The situation was so grave that the EC had to write to the DGP and the police commissioner of Calcutta to ensure that BLOs could work freely without pressure.
“But it appeared that the letter did not yield much result, as it was found that 1.67 crore enumeration forms were uploaded with anomalies. This happened only because BLOs, AEROs and EROs had to work under tremendous political pressure,” said
an official.
He explained why the EC wanted to ensure that such errors did not take place during the hearing and verification phase.
“If such errors occur because of pressure on the officials conducting a hearing and verification, there is every chance that ineligible voters could be enrolled in the rolls and eligible voters could be left out. Efforts are on to ensure that the officials are kept free from political pressure, but the way the ruling establishment was opposing the SIR, the poll panel wanted to be 200 per cent sure before deciding on inclusion or exclusion of any voters who would be called for a hearing,” said a source.
The sources also said that the voters, who could not link themselves with the 2002 electoral rolls by self-mapping or progeny mapping, will be called for the hearing and the verification. Moreover, the EC will also ask the suspicious voters to be present before the AEROs or the EROs to get their documents verified.
Around 32 lakh unmapped voters will be called for the hearing and the verification. Besides, there are 1.67 crore voters who are on the suspicious list because of discrepancies in their forms. But it is still not clear how many of them would be called for a hearing.
“The EROs and the AEROs will start sending notices for the hearing from Friday, and the voters will get a week to be present before the authorities and establish their claims by furnishing the required documents,” said a source.