SIR in Bengal: Hearing on claims and objections on draft voters’ list to start today
Kolkata, Dec 27 (IANS) – The first phase of the three‑stage Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal, which covered the enumeration of voters, has now finished. The next phase will kick off on Saturday, when officials begin opening the hearing sessions to address claims and objections raised against the draft voters’ list that was published on December 16.
Every hearing table will be overseen by an Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) with the help of one Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO). In addition, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has deployed 4,600 micro‑observers to monitor each table. These observers are mostly central government employees, or staff from central public sector undertakings or banks, largely from Group‑B, with a few from Group‑A.
The Commission had set a benchmark: each ERO should handle about 150 cases per day. The last time a SIR was carried out in the state was in 2002.
The first round of hearings will focus on “unmapped” voters—those who do not appear on the 2002 list, whether via “self‑mapping” or “progeny mapping.” Roughly 30 lakh voters fall into this category. The subsequent rounds will tackle a larger set of questionable entries flagged during the progeny‑mapping process, numbering around 1.36 crore. These include voters who are 45 or older but were absent from the 2002 roll, those who became fathers before age 15, grandfathers before age 40, or whose parents share identical names.
To safeguard against falsified documents, the Commission has already introduced measures that prevent forged IDs from being accepted as genuine during the hearings. It has also clarified the responsibilities of EROs, district magistrates, and district electoral officers for the final tally.
The draft voters’ list will remain available until the finalized version goes live on February 14 next year. After that, the ECI will set the polling dates for the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal.
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