Someone may be in a different state or country for studies, work, or medical treatment, yet they have been summoned for a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) hearing. In such cases, the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) office has sent a new proposal to the country's Election Commission (EC) to resolve the complications of appearing in person at the hearing.
Due to this complication, Bengali migrant workers working in other states as well as children staying in other states or countries for higher education or work are facing problems. It is difficult for them to appear at the hearing on the specified date. Again, if they do not appear at the hearing, their names may be dropped from the final voter list of 'SIR' despite being valid voters. Expressing concerns about this, numerous complaints are being filed almost daily at the CEO office. Multiple political parties have also become vocal about this issue.
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In this situation, state CEO Manoj Agarwal's proposal is to allow parents or other close relatives of such voters to appear at the hearing with appropriate documents. If necessary, online hearings for voters staying in other states could also be conducted. For instance, there is provision for online hearings at the high commission of the respective country for voters staying abroad. However, the commission has not yet commented on this proposal.
Notices to begin as hearings move ahead
Meanwhile, the commission has instructed to start the hearing process for voters identified with 'logical discrepancy' in the draft list of 'SIR'. This instruction was given in a virtual meeting with all District Electoral Officers (DEO) on Tuesday. Starting today, Wednesday, notices for hearings will begin to be sent. According to sources, 94 lakh 49 thousand people on this discrepancy list will be served notices and called for hearings. Initially, this number was 1 crore 67 lakh. The number was later reduced after filtering out technical or digitization errors.
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The Gangasagar fair is beginning during the 'SIR' hearings. Millions of people from home and abroad come to participate in this fair. Administrative officers of South 24 Parganas remain active in law and order and infrastructural supervision related to the fair. For this reason, the CEO has written to the state's Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty requesting that government officials involved in the 'SIR' hearing process in this district should not be used for fair-related work.
If necessary, government employees and officers from other districts will have to be brought to manage the fair. The South 24 Parganas District Magistrate had also recently informed the CEO that staff shortage is appearing for hearings in Kakdwip, Diamond Harbour, and Sagar due to the fair.
