The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced that it will conduct the assembly elections in Bengal. A first-level checking or FLC workshop of EVMs and VVPATs was held in Kolkata on Friday.
A special delegation of the Commission explained the details to the District Election Officers. Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agrawal and other senior officials of the Chief Electoral Officer of the state were also present.
A four-member delegation, including Gyanesh Bharti, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner in charge of West Bengal, has arrived in the state in the SIR environment.
They reviewed the progress of the work of SIR in the two cities of Kolkata and South 24 Parganas, as well as in Nadia, Malda and Murshidabad. He also held a meeting with DEOs and EROs. Later, they attended the First Level Checking or FLC Workshop on EVMs and VVPATs.
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The DEOs of 24 districts of the state were present in the workshop. From September 15 this year, the ballot and control unit of P-3 series EVMs started arriving in the state. It is known that all of them have arrived by October 15.
The new EVMs will have the symbol of the political party as well as the picture of the candidate. The commission thinks that this will be beneficial for the voters. The members of the delegation held a workshop with the DEOs to explain the details in this regard.
The topic of BLOs also came up in the workshop. According to the commission, Gyanesh Bharti has sought a status report from the state SIR before the meeting begins. He also interacted with the DEOs on all BLO related issues in various districts. In the last few days, multiple BLOs have complained about the workload. On Thursday, Tapati Biswas, a BLO from Konnagar, fell ill while distributing the form. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also sent a financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh to him.
However, it is not known whether there was any discussion in the meeting.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agrawal said, "The BLOs are working day and night. While the workshop discussed the training on EVMs and VVPATs, the DEOs of each district were asked about the work done by the BLOs. 99 percent of BLOs are working. There may be three or four BLOs against whom allegations have been made. But they are fulfilling their constitutional duties.”
A delegation from Electronics Corporation of India was also present at the meeting.
