Around 32 lakh unmapped voters to be called in phase 1 of SIR hearings from Dec 27 in Bengal

Kolkata, Dec 22 (PTI) Around 32 lakh unmapped voters will be called in the first phase of hearings under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, officials from the office of the State Chief Electoral Officer said on Monday.

Hearings for this category, in which voters could not link their names with those of family members in the 2002 electoral rolls, will begin from December 27, he said.

"We have started sending notices to around 10 lakh such voters from today, while the same will be issued to another 22 lakh voters from Tuesday," the official told PTI.

During the enumeration phase, a total of 31,68,424 unmapped voters were identified across the state.

He said that the proceedings will be conducted at district magistrates' offices, sub-divisional offices, various government departments, as well as in schools and colleges.

Officials said that voters with logical discrepancies will be taken up in the next phase, for which guidelines have been sought from the Election Commission.

Each hearing will be conducted under the supervision of a micro-observer, he said.

Training for 4,000 micro-observers will be held in two phases on December 24 in Kolkata, he said, noting that all the micro-observers are officials from the state.

Earlier in the day, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that the micro-observers lack knowledge of the local Bengali language.

Meanwhile, a delegation from the Election Commission will visit the state to review the progress of the SIR of the electoral rolls, sources in the office of the state CEO said.

"The Commission's Principal Secretary SB Joshi and Deputy Secretary Abhinav Agarwal will arrive in the state to assess the progress of the hearing phase under the SIR process," he said.

The officials will also attend the training programme for micro-observers on December 24, the official said. PTI SCH NN