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Kolkata, Nov 24 (IANS): The Election Commission of India (ECI) has estimated that over 10 lakh names will be removed from the voter list in West Bengal after the completion of the ongoing special intensive review (SIR) by the commission in the state.
An insider in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said the ECI estimate came after evaluating the enumeration forms already collected by the two-tier officers (BO/BLO) and uploaded on the BLO app.
The insider said names to be removed will include those who are deceased, duplicate entries (i.e., voters whose names are in two places at once), voters who have permanently relocated to another state, and missing or untraceable voters.
“The highest deletion will be in the category of dead voters, which will be around 6.5 lakh,” said an insider in the CEO’s office. “The process of collecting the duly filled enumeration forms and uploading them in the BLO app is ongoing, and the exact number of names to be deleted from the voter list will be known only after the process is completed and the draft voter list is published by the Commission.”
On Monday, West Bengal CEO, Manoj Kumar Aggarwal appealed to voters who have not yet submitted their duly filled enumeration forms to the BLOs as soon as possible.
He reminded voters that the last date for submission of duly filled enumeration forms is December 4, and the deadline will not be extended. Those who do not submit duly filled enumeration forms, their names will be automatically removed from the voter list.
The draft list will be published on December 9.
Addressing reports about the deaths of three BLOs in West Bengal so far – allegedly linked to SIR assignments – Aggarwal said the ECI has received detailed reports on the matter from the concerned district magistrates, who are also the district electoral officers for the respective districts.
“The contribution of BLOs in the SIR exercise in West Bengal is truly commendable. In true sense, BLOs are the real heroes in the SIR exercise,” Agarwal said.
–IANS
Source/PGH