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Kolkata, Nov 14 (IANS) The new deadline for distribution of enumeration forms for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by the Election Commission of India (ECI) will end on Friday, and around 70 lakh enumeration forms are yet to be distributed.
Officials in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal are confident that, considering the average daily distribution rate of enumeration forms since the process began on November 4, the distribution of the remaining 70 lakh forms will be easily completed on the last day of the extended deadline.
According to the data available from the CEO office, till 8 pm on Thursday night, a total of 6.98 crore (91.19 percent) enumeration forms have been distributed in the state. According to the voter list till October 27, the total number of voters in West Bengal is 7,66,37,529.
The initial deadline to complete the distribution of count forms passed on November 11, as about 15 percent of voters in the state have not received them.
After this, the new deadline for completing the distribution of calculation forms was fixed as 14th November. Completion of distribution of enumeration forms will also mark the end of the first phase of the three-phase SIR process in West Bengal.
The first phase of the three-phase SIR in West Bengal began on November 4. The entire process is expected to be completed by March next year. The last time SIR was conducted in West Bengal was in 2002.
Voters whose names or their parents were not in the 2002 voter list will have to submit any one of the 11 documents specified by the Commission to retain their name in the voter list.
Voters whose names or their parents’ names were mentioned in the 2002 electoral list must produce any one of the 11 identity documents recognized by the ECI.
The political heat in West Bengal regarding SIR has been at its peak since the day Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar announced this process.
The Trinamool Congress has been opposing the exercise since the beginning, claiming that the SIR was a “ploy” by the Central government to “slap” the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state.
On the other hand, the BJP claims that the Trinamool Congress’s opposition to the vetting process was due to their fear that the names of illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya voters would be removed from the voter list.
–IANS
source/svn