ECI has launched a crackdown against BLOs over the alleged gross irregularities and violations for SIR in West Bengal
KOLKATA — The Election Commission of India (ECI) has launched a crackdown against booth-level officers (BLOs) over the alleged gross irregularities and violations of prescribed norms related to enumeration forms for the Special Intensive Revision in West Bengal.
To begin with, sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, and the commission have registered FIRs against eight BLAs for allegedly interfering in the distribution of enumeration forms, taking possession of the forms from BLOs, and distributing them themselves.
At the same time, the commission has slapped showcause notices to eight BLOs who have reportedly adopted the shortcut process of distributing the enumeration forms from a particular place, violating the commission-prescribed norm of making door-to-door visits for distribution of the forms, the sources in the CEO office said.
On Friday, the commission issued an ultimatum to the BLOs who adopted such shortcut methods for the distribution of enumeration forms.
However, even after the commission's ultimatum, these eight BLOs were reported to have adopted the same shortcut path, after which the poll panel issued show-cause notices to them.
These eight BLOs, commission sources said, are from Cooch Behar, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts.
The commission, sources in the CEO's office said, has once again directed the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) to keep a close watch on the activities of the BLOs during the revision process, so that the latter perform their duties in accordance with ECI guidelines.
The commission had once again cautioned the BLOs against giving the responsibility of enumeration forms to a third party, be it a relative or a friend, or an acquaintance, and warned that such actions would be deemed as a severe breach of conduct.
The ECI began the SIR in the state on Tuesday, and over four crore enumeration forms were distributed till 8 p.m. on Saturday.
"Going by the progress, we expect the complete the process of enumeration form distribution well before the end of this month," sources in the CEO's office said.
The total number of electors in West Bengal as per the electoral roll as on October 27, is 7,66,37,529.
Voters whose names or their parents' names were included in the electoral rolls in 2002, the last time the SIR was conducted in West Bengal, will have to include details in the enumeration forms and submit them.
These voters don't need to submit any other supporting documents to retain their names in the electoral roll. Earlier, the SIR in West Bengal was conducted in 2002.
Voters, whose names or their parents' names did not figure in the 2002 list, will have to submit any one of the 11 documents specified by the Commission to retain their names in the voter list.