SIR in Bengal: EC officials hold review meetings in Alipurduar, Cooch Behar districts

Kolkata, Nov 6 (PTI) Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti and West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal on Thursday held review meetings in Alipurduar and Cooch Behar districts on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, an official said.

Bharti and Agarwal were accompanied by other senior officials at the meeting held with Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and their assistants.

"During the meeting, all the EROs and AEROs were directed to ensure that appropriate measures are taken during the SIR, so that no genuine voter is excluded from the electoral rolls and no ineligible voter is included under Dead/Shifted/Absent/Duplicate categories," the official said.

The senior DEC and the CEO of West Bengal, also instructed the officials to ensure proper distribution of enumeration forms by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs), he added.

"At the meeting, the presentations on SIR and BLO app were made by the ECI team, and all doubts regarding SIR were cleared," he said.

Bharti, who is leading the Election Commission team to the state, reached Alipurduar on Wednesday night.

"They tried to identify issues arising from the SIR process. During these visits, they are likely to interact with Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and some voters," the official added.

The EROs and the AEROs were further directed to closely monitor the activities of BLOs to ensure that they perform their duties in accordance with ECI guidelines, he said.

"BLOs were advised to ensure that they wear and display their identity cards during house-to-house visits and complete the assigned work within the stipulated time frame for the SIR," the official further elaborated.

The team also conducted field visits in Alipurduar before heading to Cooch Behar in the afternoon, the official said.

In Cooch Behar district, the team held a meeting with the district-level officials and reviewed various SIR-related issues.

On Friday, the team is scheduled to visit Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling, he added. PTI SCH MNB NN