Each Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) in West Bengal will manage 150 cases of hearings on claims and objections to the draft voters’ list daily starting this Saturday. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has set this target to ensure the timely conclusion of the hearing sessions within a reasonable period. This initiative is part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state, with the aim of finalizing the voters’ list by February 14 next year.
The decision to set the daily target at 150 hearings was made to allow ample reserve time for reviewing decisions before the final voters’ list is published. Each hearing table will consist of an ERO, an Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO), and a micro-observer appointed by the Commission to oversee the sessions. These micro-observers will be drawn from central government staff or central public sector undertakings, specifically from the Group B category, currently stationed in West Bengal.
Notices for the hearings have already been dispatched, with booth-level officers (BLOs) delivering two copies of the notices to the concerned voters. The voters will retain one copy and return the other after signing it. The hearing sessions will be conducted in two phases: the first phase will summon “unmapped voters” without connections to the 2002 list, while the second phase will address cases with questionable family tree data identified during “progeny mapping.”
The draft voters’ list was released on December 16, with the final list scheduled for publication on February 14. Following this, the Election Commission of India (ECI) will announce the polling dates for the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal.
