The Election Commission on Monday clarified that financial assistance letters issued to the beneficiaries of rural housing schemes would not be accepted as documents in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, prompting the Trinamool Congress to claim that lakhs of people in Bengal would face trouble because of the decision.

In a letter to Bengal chief electoral officer (CEO), Manoj Agarwal, the EC on Monday said the list of documents admissible under the SIR exercise did not include financial assistance sanction letters, and so such papers would not be accepted as indicative documents.

Sources said the CEO had sought clarification from the EC on January 21 on the admissibility of the financial letters during the exercise.

“The Commission in its SIR instruction dated 27.10.2025 has prescribed ‘Any Land/House allotment certificate by Government as one of the indicative documents. The financial assistance sanction letters issued under schemes like PMAY-G, IAY, Banglar Bari (Gramin) etc, are not the documents as specified either in the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court or in the SIR instructions referred to...,” reads the letter sent to
the CEO.

Sources in the office of the CEO said that the clarification was sought after many of the voters, who had been called for hearings, were submitting the sanction letters of Banglar Bari, a rural housing scheme initiated by the state government, in which a sum of ₹1.20 lakh was given to the beneficiaries to construct houses in rural areas.

“But the EC had earlier specified that only documents related to land or house transfer by the government would be admissible. For example, those who were given land pattas or houses under the integrated housing and slum development programme would be eligible to attend the hearings with the documents concerned. The EC has never recognised the documents on the financial assistance schemes. In schemes like Banglar Bari, financial assistance is given to construct dwelling units on the land of the beneficiaries,” said a source.

A section of the officials said that if the EC gave recognition to the beneficiaries of financial assistance schemes, it would be tough to identify ineligible voters in Bengal, as almost all the seven crore electors received some kind of grant from the state government, as Nabanna had made the majority of the schemes open to all.

Trinamool said the decision would leave lakhs of people in Bengal in trouble, as they had no other documents other than the financial assistance letters.

“Why was the EC rejecting these documents? The benefits are transferred to those who have land. So, why cannot this be accepted as a document?” asked Chandrima Bhattacharya, the minister of state (independent charge), finance department, during a news conference on Monday.

Sources on the poll panel said that holding of land was never accepted as a qualifying criterion under the SIR, as many people from Bangladesh have bought land here illegally.

“There are some complaints that people from Bangladesh buy land here through forged documents. This is why holding of land was never accepted as a criterion,” said a source.