The Election Commission on Tuesday extended the deadline for hearings of notices sent to voters as part of the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in West Bengal to February 14, The Hindu reported.
The date for publishing the final voter list has been moved to February 28 from February 14.
The extension came after the state’s chief electoral officer on February 7 sent a formal request to the poll panel for an extension, citing pending work, the newspaper reported.
It also came after the Supreme Court on Monday directed that the deadline for scrutinising documents and objections under the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in West Bengal be extended at least for a week after February 14.
It also ordered the state director general of police to respond to the Election Commission’s allegations that the exercise to revise electoral rolls in the state was marred by violence and intimidation.
The court passed the order on a batch of petitions challenging the exercise in West Bengal. A petition by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, contending that the revision of the poll rolls was being conducted in a partisan and hurried manner ahead of the Assembly elections, had also been listed.
Assembly elections in the state are expected to be held by April.
In a notification to the chief electoral officer on Tuesday, the Election Commission said that the schedule for the state had been revised in compliance with the directions issued by the court, The Hindu reported.
While the dates for completing the hearings have been revised to February 14 from February 7, the deadline for the scrutiny of documents has been extended to February 21.
The exercise is in its final phase, with only about 3% to 5% hearings remaining, the newspaper quoted the state chief electoral officer as saying. However, around 25% of document uploading and digitisation was pending, he added.
The draft electoral rolls for West Bengal under the special intensive revision exercise were published on December 16. The names of over 58 lakh voters were removed from voter lists in the state as they had either died, migrated outside the state or did not submit their enumeration forms.
The deletion from the draft roll is provisional and citizens can object to their names being removed from the list. Citizens whose names have been dropped from the list can file their claims and objections.
The revision exercise is currently in the claims and objections stage in the state, during which voters identified for verification are being called for personal hearings.
Over 94.4 lakh persons were also summoned for hearings under the “logical discrepancies” category, The Hindu reported. More than 31.6 lakh voters who were classified as “unmapped” were also asked to appear for hearings.
Voters with “logical discrepancies” in their forms are separate from those whose names were removed, and from the “unmapped voters”, who could not establish a familial link with the voters’ list of 2002.
Logical discrepancies include a mismatch in parents’ names, low age gap with parents and the number of children of the parents being above six.
Besides West Bengal, the special intensive revision of electoral rolls is underway in 11 other states and Union Territories.
In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly elections in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll.
Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll.
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