Bengal SIR drive: About 2 crore electors expected to provide documents to retain name in voters’ list

Kolkata: Around 2 crore existing voters in West Bengal will have to provide any one of the documents, as specified by the Election Commission of India (ECI) during the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise, for getting their names retrained in the voters’ list, an estimate by the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said.

This is because the names of these voters were not included in the list for 2002, the last time when the SIR was conducted in the state.

The task of “mapping & matching” of voters’ list with that in 2002 has already been completed for all the districts in West Bengal except for the two North Bengal districts of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri, because of the devastating flood and landslide that affected the two districts badly, earlier this month.

Based on the inputs and records available from the districts where the work of “mapping & matching” has already been completed and based on rough estimates for Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri, the CEO’s office has concluded that around two crore voters will have provide any one of the documents specified by the ECI to get their names retained in the voters’ list.

An insider from the CEO’s office said that most of these voters who would have to provide any one of the ECI-mandated documents are from the districts having international borders with the neighbouring Bangladesh.

As per SIR protocol, voters having names in the 2002 list will have their names automatically registered in the new voters’ list, and such voters will not have to furnish any document to prove theirr eligibility as a voter.

However, those not having their names in the 2002 list will have to provide the documents, as mandated by ECI for that purpose. Although the AADHAR card has been included in the list of such documents, the ECI has made it clear that only the AADHAR card will not be enough and the voter concerned will have to furnish any one of the 11 other documents for proving their citizenship, as specified by the commission.

Notably, the AADHAR is neither treated as proof of citizenship nor of age.

IANS