SIR: Special arrangements to ensure jail inmates' participation in West Bengal

Kolkata, Nov 18 Special arrangements were in place to ensure that all the inmates in all the correctional homes in West Bengal, whose names figure in the voters' list as on October 27, can participate in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise by filling up their respective enumeration forms and submitting the same to the booth-level officers (BLOs).

Undertrial inmates will be given preference over convicted ones, a senior official from the state Correctional Services Department said.

The officials of the correctional homes in the state have already been directed to help inmates in filling out the enumeration forms.

The state Correctional Services Department has already issued a notification.

"Strict instructions have been given to the authorities of all correctional homes in the state to ensure that every inmate who is eligible for participation in the SIR should not be denied his or her right to that. It is possible that even after participating in the revision and getting their names retained in the voters' list, many of them will not be able to cast their votes, since on voting days, they might be behind bars. But they have the right to get their names retained in the voters' list, and the department wants to ensure that," the state Correctional Services Department official said.

Currently, there are 62 correctional homes in the state. Since the beginning, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, has been focusing on ensuring that eligible jail inmates can participate in the SIR and accordingly started interacting with the State Correctional Services Department.

The SIR process in West Bengal started on November 4, and the entire process is expected to be completed by March next year. The last time that the SIR was conducted in West Bengal was in 2002.

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