Kolkata, February 15 – Following the conclusion of the hearing session on claims and objections to the draft voter list in West Bengal, and with the scrutiny of supporting identity documents scheduled to continue until February 21, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has identified five districts in the state where the instances of uploading "unlisted" documents have been abnormally high so far.
The five districts are Cooch Behar, Malda, Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas, and South 24 Parganas. All five districts share international borders with Bangladesh, with South 24 Parganas primarily having coastal borders.
"Besides these five districts, where the instances of uploading 'unlisted' documents have been abnormally high, similar irregularities have also been marginally high in the districts of East Burdwan and West Burdwan," sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said.
They also stated that the maximum uploading of "unlisted" documents has been detected in cases of "logical discrepancy," while similar irregularities in cases of "unmapped" voters have been negligible.
"Unmapped" voters are those who were unable to establish any link either through "self-mapping" or through "progeny mapping" with the 2002 voter list, the last time when the revision was conducted in West Bengal.
On the other hand, "logical discrepancy" cases are those where unusual family trees have been detected during "progeny" mapping.
"The Commission had once again cautioned the district magistrates, as well as the district electoral officers, to ensure that only the 13 listed documents are accepted as authentic identity proof documents. However, even after that, such high instances of uploading of 'unlisted' documents to these districts have irked the Commission," said the sources in the CEO’s office.
Incidentally, at a virtual full-bench meeting of the Commission on Friday, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the latter directed the DMs/DEOs that "unlisted" documents already uploaded in the system should be removed from the system by February 16.
The final voter list in West Bengal will be published on February 28. On March 1, a full bench of the ECI will undertake a two-day visit to West Bengal to assess the post-SIR scenario. Shortly after that, the ECI will announce the polling dates for the crucial assembly elections in West Bengal, which are scheduled later this year.
