West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee will hold a protest today as part of its ongoing agitation against SIR
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NEW DELHI — The West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) will hold a protest in the city on Friday as part of its ongoing agitation against Special Intensive Revision (SIR), ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections.
The party has demanded the publication of an error-free voter list, alleging large-scale discrepancies in the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls.
WBPCC President Subhankar Sarkar announced a 24-hour sit-in in front of the Chief Electoral Officer’s office in Kolkata from 2 p.m. on Friday to press the demand.
Sarkar said the party has been vocal from the outset that no eligible voter’s name should be deleted and no fake name included. However, he alleged that the SIR process, which began on November 4 last year, has led to harassment of genuine voters and fears of large-scale exclusions.
Sarkar said, "We have been vocal from the beginning in demanding that no eligible voter's name should be omitted and no fake name should be included in the voters' list. But the way the SIR has been conducted in the last four months has led to unnecessary harassment of eligible voters and there is a fear of a large number of names being deleted."
According to the State Congress President, more than one crore voters have been heard on the basis of so-called 'logical discrepancies', the legal validity of which has been questioned.
Sarkar also claimed that the courts have had to intervene repeatedly due to some decisions of the Election Commission.
The Congress is going to intensify their agitation in the coming days with several demands such as -- the final voter list under SIR should be published on February 28, no genuine voters name should be excluded on the basis of 'logical discrepancy', the legal powers of electoral registration officers cannot be curtailed.
Moreover, all applications submitted in Forms 6, 7 and 8 should be disposed of through proper hearing and a new schedule and clear guidelines should be given to eligible voters, who were accidentally excluded, which should be completed before the nomination process begins.