The Election Commission is considering a proposal to launch a portal to allow voters with logical discrepancies in their enumeration forms to upload their documents before appearing for a hearing.

The initiative was mooted after the poll panel decided to call 95 lakh voters for hearings, as booth-level officers (BLOs) could not clear doubts on the anomalies found in the forms, which were uploaded as part of the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.

“It will be a Herculean task to conduct hearings of so many voters within one month. It appears to be tough work as hearings of 32 lakh unmapped voters could not be completed as yet, even though hearings had started on December 27. The portal will help the poll panel complete the exercise before the deadline of February 7,” said a senior official.

Sources said that the proposal had been sent to Nirvachan Sadan from the chief electoral officer (CEO)’s office in Calcutta. The work for the portal will start as soon as the EC approves the proposal.

According to the plan, once voters are served with notices to explain the anomalies in their enumeration forms, they will have to log in to the proposed portal by keying in their EPIC numbers. “After the voter logs in, his/her notice would be displayed on the portal where he/she would be able to upload any of the 11 documents specified by the EC by clicking on a link,” said an official.

Once the documents are uploaded, the EC will verify each of them. The voters whose documents would be found genuine would not be required to attend any hearing.

“But the voters, whose documents would not clear doubts of the poll panel, might be required to appear for hearings,” said the official.

If the proposal is approved, many voters would benefit as they would not be required to stand in long queues to attend hearings on a given date.

“This will help the voters who are outside Bengal for different reasons and are unable to visit the state immediately to attend the hearings. The portal will be of great help for migrant labourers working outside the state. It is really troublesome for them to attend hearings by visiting the state on short notice,” said a source.

The EC has already initiated some steps to help the voters residing abroad for study, official engagement and medical or any other purpose by exempting them from personal appearance during the hearing in case they are called for being unmapped voters or those with logical discrepancies in the forms.

“Instead, these electors may send any authorised family member with proof of relation with the electoral body to submit any of the necessary documents as referred by the Commission...,” reads an order issued by the additional chief electoral officer of Bengal on Thursday.

The sources said that allowing voters with logical discrepancies in the forms to upload their documents before visiting the hearing centres would help the EC complete the exercise on time.

Right now, the poll panel is conducting hearings of 32 lakh unmapped voters, who could not link themselves with the 2002 electoral roll through self or progeny mapping.

“Notices were served on all such voters, and hearings were completed for more than 20 lakh electors. But documents were uploaded for about 8 lakh voters. So it can be said that the progress is slow. If the hearings have to be conducted for another 95 lakh voters, it would be difficult to complete the process on time,” said a source.