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Kolkata, Nov 12 (IANS) As the initial deadline set by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to complete the enumeration form distribution under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal has ended, about 15 per cent of voters in the state have still not received the forms.
According to data available from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, more than 6.56 crore voters in the state have received counting forms till 8 pm on Tuesday, which is about 85.71 per cent of the total registered voters in the state.
According to the voter list till October 27, the total number of voters in West Bengal is 7,66,37,529.
Amid this development, voters who have not received the counting forms are anxiously waiting for any announcement from the CEO office on the extension of the deadline.
On the other hand, the CEO’s office is in touch with its high command, the ECI headquarters in New Delhi, for specific instructions on the matter, sources in the election body’s office confirmed.
Among various districts, the progress of enumeration form distribution is the lowest in Kolkata at around 66 per cent.
On the other hand, East Burdwan and East Midnapore districts have the highest percentage of voters receiving enumeration forms at 97 percent.
Meanwhile, BLO Oikya Manch (BLO Unity Forum), an organization of booth level officers (BLOs) in West Bengal, had claimed that they had been insisting for a longer deadline for distribution of enumeration forms from the beginning, which was ignored by the Commission.
An official of the forum said, “Though officially, the processing of enumeration forms started from November 4, but in the first two days, the progress of distribution was quite slow due to sufficient number of enumeration forms not being available. The pace picked up only from the third day, i.e. November 6.”
–IANS
source/svn