SIR in Bengal: ECI advises micro-observers to take note of DOB mismatches in hearing sessions

Kolkata, Dec 25 The Election Commission of India (ECI) has advised the micro-observers appointed to supervise the hearing sessions to be especially vigilant about the mismatches in dates of birth (DOBs) in its records and supporting documents furnished by the voters concerned.

Clear instructions were given to the micro-observers during a training programme on Wednesday about their roles in the hearing sessions.

Explaining the matter in detail, sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said that during the hearing sessions, instances might surface where there might be mismatches between the dates of birth that are in the records of the Commission, with those mentioned in the supporting identity documents provided by the voters during the hearing sessions.

"In such cases, the duty of the micro-observers would be to take note of such date of birth mismatches and report to their higher authorities, so that these cases are subjected to further scrutiny at the end of the hearing session," sources in the CEO's office explained.

At the same time, he added, the micro-observers have also been advised to match the claims made by the voters with the supporting documents provided during the hearing sessions.

"The idea is to make the hearing sessions exercise foolproof so that neither a single valid voter is excluded from the final voters' list nor a single bogus voter remains included there," the CEO's office source said.

In the first stage of hearing sessions starting from December 27, unmapped voters, those not having links with the 2002 list either through "self mapping" or through "progeny mapping", will be summoned. The number of such "unmapped voters" is a little over 30 lakhs.

In the second stage of the hearing, doubtful voters whose weird family tree data have been detected in "progeny mapping" will be summoned for a hearing. The number of such doubtful cases is around 1.36 crore.

The last time the SIR was conducted in West Bengal was in 2002.

The draft voters' list was published on December 16. The final voters' list will be published on February 14 next year. Soon after that, the ECI will announce the polling dates for the crucial Assembly elections in West Bengal, scheduled for next year.

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