SIR row: EC flags technical issue in 2002 rolls, pauses hearings for 'unmapped' voters in Bengal

The EC (Election Commission) has issued fresh instructions to district election officials in West Bengal, directing that voters marked as “unmapped” in the BLO (Booth Level Officer) app due to technical issues during the ongoing SIR (Special Intensive Revision) of electoral rolls should not be called for hearings, even if such notices have been auto-generated by the system.

The directive, issued by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, on Saturday, said the problem has arisen due to incomplete digitisation of the 2002 electoral rolls, the last SIR conducted in the state. The PDF version of the rolls could not be fully converted into CSV format, leading to linkage failures in the BLO app for a section of electors.

The CEO’s office said that despite being flagged as “unmapped” in the system, many such voters have valid self or progeny linkage with the hard copy of the 2002 electoral rolls, which were earlier authenticated by district election officers (DEOs) and published on the CEO’s website.

In such cases, the directive said, hearing notices generated automatically need not be served and should instead be retained at the level of the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO).

As per the instructions, extracts of the 2002 electoral rolls may be forwarded to the concerned DEO for verification in accordance with Election Commission guidelines. Following verification, EROs or AEROs may take an appropriate decision and upload the necessary documents for disposal of the cases.

The directive also allows BLOs to be deputed for field verification, including photographing the electors concerned for uploading into the system.

“This directive might be for the time being. If it is felt that hearings are at all required in some cases, that will be done only after a proper verification,” an official told PTI.

However, the CEO’s office clarified that if discrepancies are detected at a later stage — either during scrutiny of the hard copy of the 2002 rolls or upon receipt of complaints — the electors concerned may still be called for hearings after due service of notices.

The instructions have been circulated to all DEOs as part of the ongoing SIR exercise in West Bengal, aimed at ensuring the accuracy of electoral rolls while addressing technical limitations arising from legacy data integration.

With PTI inputs