SIR deadline extension shows how unprepared ECI is: Trinamool Congress

The Trinamool Congress alleged that the ECI had announced SIR in a hurry under instructions from the Bharatiya Janata Party

Kolkata: As the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) extended the deadline for publication of the first draft electoral roll by a week on Sunday, West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress and a section of booth level officers (BLOs) called it an indicator of lack of preparation for the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR).

The Election Commission of India extended the deadline for SIR by a week on Sunday. (Representational image)

“The ECI announced the SIR (on October 27) in a hurry under instructions from the Bharatiya Janata Party. The chaos that followed and now, the extension of deadline, shows how unprepared the ECI is,” TMC’s state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said.

“At least 40 Bengal residents, including some BLOs, have died under pressure because of the SIR. BLOs are dying in BJP-ruled states as well. The ECI is responsible for these. We had been saying all along that the SIR cannot be done in two months,” Bengal’s minister of state for finance Chandrima Bhattacharya said.

A section of BLOs that had been demanding extension of time for the exercise called Sunday’s announcement their “partial victory” but maintained that it takes at least six months to conduct an SIR properly.

“We need at least two months more, if not three, to do our job thoroughly,” one of the agitating BLOs, a school teacher, said, requesting anonymity.

The state’s opposition BJP, which has alleged that TMC is exerting pressure on BLOs to keep the names of dead voters and illegal Muslim Bangladeshi immigrants in the voter list, did not react to the extension of deadline but said chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar should visit the districts.

BJP’s Bengal unit president Samik Bhattacharya said: “The ground reality in Bengal is drastically different from the 11 other states and Union Territories where the SIR is taking place. Instead of sending instructions over the phone from Delhi and sending observers, Gyanesh Kumar should come here and visit the districts.”

“Why don’t you (Kumar) visit Murshidabad, Malda, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas? You need some experience too,” Bhattacharya added.

Amid the political row, Subrata Gupta, the special roll observer sent from Delhi by the ECI visited the Palta area of South 24 Parganas district on Sunday and held a meeting with around 100 BLOs. He also met representatives of the TMC, BJP, Left and Congress parties.

“There is no problem as such. Our goal is to address the procedural issues the BLOs have raised. If needed, we will issue additional guidelines,” Gupta, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer who earlier served in Bengal, told the media after the meeting.

As TMC targeted the ECI for the death of four BLOs - one by suicide - reported in Bengal so far, an assistant electoral registration officer (AERO) was hospitalised on Sunday with his relatives alleging that he collapsed under work pressure.

Vivekanada Pal, an employee at the office of the community block development officer (BDO) of Pinga in West Midnapore district, was first admitted at the Tamralipta Medical College and Hospital in the morning and later rushed to the Institute of Neurosciences in Kolkata.

“He collapsed at home. Not everyone can handle such work pressure,” Chandan Dey, one of Pal’s relatives, told the local media.

State chief electoral officer Manoj Agarwal did not make any statement on the incident till evening.