Mamata Banerjee asks CEC to halt SIR citing ‘unrealistic workload, impossible timelines’

New Delhi: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee urged Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar to immediately halt the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls underway in her state and ‘thoroughly reassess the present methodology and timelines’ The Wire reported.

Banerjee in her letter to Chief Election Commissioner alleged that booth-level officers (BLOs) were not given ‘adequate training, support and time’ alongside accusing West Bengal’s chief electoral officer (CEO) of resorting to ‘intimidation’, thus threatening BLOs with disciplinary action and show-cause notices.

Burdening BLOs with an ‘unrealistic workload, impossible timelines and inadequate support with online data entry,’ has put the entire process and credibility at risk, she alleged adding that it ‘strikes at the heart of our electoral democracy’.

Coming down on the Commission further she said that CEO West Bengal, rather than offering support and extending timeliness has ‘resorted to intimidation. Showcause notices are being issued without justification. BLOs – already stretched and distressed – are being threatened with severe disciplinary action simply because the Commission refuses to acknowledge the reality on the ground.’

Citing the death of a BLO in Jalpaiguri, anganwadi worker, allegedly by suicide from SIR-related pressure, Banerjee said the ‘human cost of this mismanagement is now unbearable’.

It is reported that another BLO, also an angawadi worker, died of cerebral attack allegedly from SIR work pressure in East Burdwan.

In another instance of human cost, a 57-year-old resident of the Kolkata-adjacent Panihati allegedly died by suicide 24 hours after the Election Commission announced the exercise.

Banerjee in her letter pointed out that ‘A revision that previously required three years is now being forcibly compressed into three months, subjecting BLOs and officials to inhuman working conditions and forcing common people under the shadow of fear and uncertainty.’

Demanding the commission to halt the process, Banerjee said this “unplanned, coercive drive not only endangers more lives but also jeopardises the legitimacy of the electoral revision itself”.

In a letter to the CEO, the CPI(M) also came down on the SIR process, calling out what it said the EC’s decision to allow BLOs linked to political parties to ‘up to 50 forms a day, amounting to 600 over the remaining 12 days, arguing that the move compromises the neutrality of the verification process’, according The Wire.