SIR in Bengal: ECI clarifies housing finance certificates won't be accepted as valid identity documents

Kolkata, Dec 29 The Election Commission of India (ECI) has clarified that an alternative to the specified "land or house allotment certificates" will not be treated as valid identity documents at the hearing sessions on claims and objections regarding the draft voters' list in West Bengal.

The sessions commenced on Saturday.

The Commission had specified a total of 13 documents, out of which "any land/house allotment certificate by the Government" is one of the documents and the 11th document in the list of 13 specified by the ECI on this count.

Insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said that the system of uploading of identity documents in the Commission's database has been programmed in such a manner that any other land or housing finance certificate other than a Commission-specified "any land/house allotment certificate by Government" cannot be uploaded in the system.

Hence, explained a CEO's office insider, the certificates issued by the West Bengal government under the "Banglar Bari", state-owned housing finance scheme, will not automatically be treated as a genuine identity document.

Explaining the rationale of the ECI not treating "Banglar Bari" certificate as a land or house allotment certificate, a CEO's office insider said that the ECI-specified 11th document identifies a particular plot of land or a particular house as being allotted to the voter concerned.

"However, the 'Banglar Bari' scheme is just a housing finance scheme where the voter concerned receives the money for purchasing a house and bears the expenditure for constructing that house from the money received. The certificate issued under the 'Banglar Bari' scheme does not identify the specific plot of land or any specific house being owned by the voter concerned. So a housing finance certificate cannot be treated at par with any land or house allotment certificate," the CEO's office insider explained.

The hearing sessions on the claims and objections started on December 27. The final voters' list will be published on February 14 next year.

Shortly after that, the ECI will announce the polling dates for the crucial Assembly elections scheduled next year.

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