West Bengal Election Watch flags gaps in 2025 electoral rolls revision process

Kolkata, Dec 5 (PTI) The West Bengal Election Watch (WBEW) on Friday flagged gaps in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and said the present guidelines mark a departure from the revision carried out in 2001-02.

Based on information obtained through RTI, the organisation issued a press statement saying voters are now required to provide proof of their presence in the 2002 electoral rolls or that of their parents or grandparents.

WBEW is the state chapter of the National Election Watch (NEW) of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The Election Commission has not given any rationale for this significant change from the 2002 process, the WBEW said.

It stated that under the current system, if a voter has shifted to a new address, the SIR form remains tagged to the old location.

Failure to return the form can lead to their names being marked as "shifted" and deleted from the rolls, with no provision to record the new residence, it added.

According to the organisation, the 2002 exercise enabled corrections and inclusion of electors holding EPIC cards even if their names had been deleted.

The 2025 process has no such provision, it said.

The WBEW also noted the absence of a mechanism for rectifying spelling or address errors and grouping family members on the same page of the rolls, provisions that were part of the earlier system.

Documents such as panchayat certificates, gas or telephone connections and bank accounts, accepted as proof of ordinary residence in 2002, are not valid for SIR 2025, which stresses proof of citizenship, the body said.

The organisation questioned how electoral rolls can improve without clear provisions to record migrated voters, include new households and restore names of existing voters whose details are already available. PTI SCH MNB