The ongoing pan-India special intensive revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal may result in the removal of at least 10 lakh names from the draft voter list, sources told News18.
According to sources from the Election Commission of India (ECI), data from the initial distribution and collection of forms has indicated that around six lakh entries pertain to deceased voters.
The sources exclusively told
News18 that booth level officers (BLO), while distributing forms at every residence and collecting them, reported this. Among the 10 lakh voters, who are likely to be removed from the draft lists, 6.5 lakh are deceased, they said.They said in addition, a large number of duplicate, relocated, and untraceable voters have also been identified. If,
within this time period, there is any claim that these voters exist, those names will be added.
These 10 lakh voters may be removed as their forms for the special intensive revision (SIR) could have been identified as “uncollectable” by the Election Commission (EC) because they were either absentee, duplicate, dead or permanently shifted.
Chief electoral officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal has said at least 7.64 crore forms have been distributed in the state. He said more than 80,600 BLOs, along with around 8,000 supervisors, 3,000 assistant electoral registration officers and 294 electoral registration officers, have been engaged for the SIR exercise in the state.
Officials from the EC said a total of 99.75 percent of the 7.66 crore electorate have, thus, been covered so far in terms of distribution of enumeration forms. A total of 3.77 crore filled forms, or 49.26 percent, have been uploaded online so far. The SIR began in West Bengal on November 4.
