Kolkata, February 20 – The Election Commission of India (ECI) has identified electoral registration officers (EROs) and assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) as “culpable” for “deliberately” delaying the process of uploading identity documents received during the hearing sessions on claims and objections on the draft voters' list in West Bengal.
Sources in the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) office claimed that 120 and 150 EROs and AEROs have been found “culpable”. However, the ECI has not yet officially disclosed the number of EROs and AEROs involved.
“Some EROs and AEROs have been found deliberately delaying the document uploading process even five days after the extended deadline for hearing sessions on February 14,” the sources claimed.
The sources also claimed that due to this deliberately lax approach to document uploading, a large number of voters' documents have yet to be uploaded to the system.
“Unless these documents are uploaded, it will not be possible to scrutinize them. In such a situation, it is highly doubtful whether the current deadline of completing the scrutiny process by February 21 will be met,” the sources said.
They added that if the deadline for completing the document scrutiny process is extended, the current scheduled publication date of the final voters' list on February 28 will also have to be postponed.
They said that the Commission is determined to take action against the EROs and AEROs found guilty.
“Actions will be taken against them by the Commission as per the provisions of the Representation of the People Acts, as has already been done against two EROs, nine AEROs, one data-entry operator, and three micro-observers,” the sources said.
