EC, Bengal govt lock horns over officers for SIR hearing phase

A fresh source of friction appears to be emerging between the Election Commission and the West Bengal government as the state prepares to enter the hearings and verification phase of the SIR.

The immediate trigger is the commission’s insistence that hearings must be conducted only by electoral registration officers of sub-divisional officer (SDO) rank or above.

In West Bengal, however, several EROs are junior officers, while some WBCS officers who do qualify as SDOs have not been assigned the responsibility.

Poll panel asserting its authority

Viewing this as a serious procedural lapse, the commission has asked the state government to take corrective measures before hearings begin, cautioning that otherwise it could appoint its own officers. The move is seen as an assertion of the poll panel’s authority over the state’s electoral machinery.

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The commission has already started issuing notices for the hearing to begin next week.

The administrative tension comes at a time when the commission is facing flak over the quality of the draft electoral rolls prepared after the SIR.

Several discrepancies in voter entries

As per the draft rolls announced earlier this week, about 32 lakh electors have failed to establish any link with the 2002 post-SIR rolls and will inevitably face hearings.

Another 1.36 crore voter entries have been flagged as problematic, because of “discrepancies” ranging from spelling errors and address mismatches to mapping and documentation or record inconsistencies.

The EC believes these are not just routine clerical errors.

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“Multiple rounds of checking failed to clean up the lists, raising concerns about the role of private data-entry operators and the conditions under which state officials worked,” said an official.

According to sources, the commission feels that many officials involved in enumeration were under intense political pressure.

Central govt officials to be micro-observers

It is this lack of confidence that has also driven the EC’s decision to deploy central government employees as micro-observers at every hearing and verification centre across the state.

In a directive issued on Friday (December 19), the commission made it clear that central government officials will oversee the hearing phase as micro-observers at various hearing centres.

Also Read: EC publishes Bengal’s SIR draft list; over 58 lakh voter names deleted

This responsibility will mainly be assigned to Group B or higher-ranking central government officers. On December 12, the office of the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) had written to the commission seeking the appointment of micro-observers.

The commission gave the permission to the CEO office to appoint such observers from various central government institutions such as public sector banks, post offices, LIC, Coal India, and the Income Tax department.

For overseeing the hearing phase, micro-observers will receive an honorarium of Rs 30,000.

Micro-observers’ responsibilities

Their primary duty will be to monitor the work of EROs and assistant (EROs) during the SIR hearing phase. They will assist in preparing and correcting an error-free voter list, the EC sources said.

They will work under the supervision of the state’s CEO, whose office will also provide their training.

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The micro-observers will verify enumeration forms, voters’ birth and death certificates, and the documents submitted by voters appearing for hearings.

In addition, identifying discrepancies in the voter list and carrying out statistical analysis will also fall under their responsibilities. District Election Officers (DEOs) will make arrangements for the security and transportation of these central government officials.

Hearings to begin

After the enumeration phase ended on December 11, the draft voter list was published on December 16. More than 58 lakh names were excluded.

Following this, voters were supposed to start being summoned for hearings from Thursday, but that did not happen.

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Even those who made it to the list may be summoned for hearings if the commission suspects discrepancies in the enumerated forms.

The commission had initially planned to rely on CCTV cameras, but later concluded that cameras would not be enough to detect procedural manipulation on the ground, and hence decided to appoint observers.