Migrant workers enrolled as voters in Bengal will not have to attend the SIR hearing camps as long as they are digitally savvy enough to navigate an online session.

In a relief to the approximately 22 lakh migrant workers from Bengal working in other states, they will be allowed to submit documents online via a yet-to-be launched portal.

The online portal will be equipped with secure video links to enable hearings along with an e-verification tab for the documents submitted online.

Though the hearing for the 94.5 lakh voters with logical discrepancy in the special intensive revision (SIR) is to be completed by February 8, the EC has not yet given a deadline for the new portal to be operational.

Thursday onwards the commission started sending the list of voters with logical discrepancies to the booth level officers (BLOs).

According to EC sources, the decision to introduce the new portal was taken to help migrant workers, students and professionals who are outside the state and cannot attend the hearings physically.

“If they themselves cannot attend the hearing, a family member may go on their behalf. Documents submitted online will be accepted by the commission,” a central poll panel official told PTI.

Some of the officials have raised concerns over conducting around 10 million hearings within a limited time-frame.

The ruling Trinamool Congress has repeatedly raised the issue of the migrant workers from Bengal who cannot attend the camps for verification.

While an Enforcement Directorate team was raiding the office of I-PAC and the residence of its head on Thursday morning, Mamata Banerjee spoke against logical discrepancy.

“In the previous SIR there was no logical discrepancy. This has been introduced by the EC at the behest of the BJP. Our voters and supporters are being targeted in the name of logical discrepancy,” Mamata told the media.

The chief minister also said the Trinamool had not been provided a list of the voters with logical discrepancies. The Trinamool general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee too had made the demand for the list to be provided during his meeting with the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

While interacting with migrant workers in Malda, Abhishek assured the Trinamool will raise the issues related to their welfare when Parliament reconvenes.

The commission is upset about the conduct of some BLOs who allegedly ignored official instructions and made independent decisions. The truant BLOs have been warned that further deliberate errors could lead to direct legal action.