West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that her government will not set up any “detention camps” in the state, adding that she follows the Constitution and practises secular politics.
The revision of the voter rolls is underway in 12 states and Union Territories, including in West Bengal. Booth-level officers began distributing enumeration forms on November 4.
Banerjee has repeatedly claimed that the Union government’s real intention behind the revision is to create a National Register of Citizens – a proposed exercise to create a list of Indian citizens and to identify undocumented immigrants.
The register was updated in Assam in 2019, after a mammoth scrutiny of ancestral family documents to weed out “illegal immigrants”, and ended up excluding 19 lakh residents of the state. The updated list, however, has not been notified six years on.
Those deemed to be foreigners were transferred to detention centres in the state.
On Tuesday, the Trinamool Congress chief also said that she did not want the public to face distress on account of the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls and urged the Union government not to issue “forceful instructions” to state government officers “like the British”, The Indian Express reported.
“If you want to give instructions, send them to the state government,” the newspaper quoted her as saying. “Otherwise, we have to save our officers.”
Banerjee also announced that the state government would provide Rs 2 lakh each to the families of 39 persons, including booth-level officers, whose deaths had been linked by families and political parties to the stress caused by the ongoing voter roll revision exercise in the state.
The chief minister said that 13 persons remained hospitalised and three others who had attempted suicide were receiving treatment. She further announced Rs 1 lakh as compensation for those injured or hospitalised.
Amid the revision of the electoral rolls, at least eight suicides by booth-level officers and two deaths due to stroke have been reported across the country.
Booth-level officers are typically primary school teachers and anganwadi, or health care workers, who are employed by state governments. They are responsible for distributing and collecting enumeration forms as part of the ongoing exercise.
They are required to go door-to-door, check the identities of new voters and verify the details of those who have died or permanently moved out of an area.
Scroll has also previously reported that the revision exercise has spread panic in West Bengal because exclusion from the voter roll is being perceived as a step towards losing citizenship.
The exercise comes even as Assembly polls are expected to take place in West Bengal in the first half of 2026.
Also read: ‘In Bengal, SIR is NRC’: Why revision of the electoral roll has spread panic in the state
In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly polls in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll published on September 30.
Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll. Several petitioners also moved the Supreme Court against it.
West Bengal, among other states, has also moved the court against the exercise.
On Sunday, the Election Commission extended by one week the timeline for the revision of the electoral rolls in all 12 states and Union Territories.
The last date of submitting the forms was extended to December 11 from December 4. As per the updated schedule, the draft electoral rolls will be published on December 16 instead of December 9.
The final electoral rolls are to be published on February 14 instead of February 7.
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