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Kolkata Welcomes Election Commission Delegation

Kolkata: A three-member team from the Election Commission of India (ECI) arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday to assess the progress of the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The delegation includes Deputy Election Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti, Deputy Secretary Abhinav Agarwal, and Principal Secretary SB Joshi, who will remain in the state until November 8.

The ECI team will evaluate the revision efforts in three northern districts of West Bengal: Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, and Cooch Behar. They will be joined by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, along with a technical support team.

In preparation, the CEO's office has established measures to ensure that booth-level officers (BLOs) are responsive to voter inquiries and complaints.

The initiative, titled 'Book a Call with BLO,' is now operational, and the CEO's office plans to continuously monitor its usage.

According to sources from the CEO's office, if a BLO fails to respond to a voter's call or does not return the call promptly, the CEO's office will notify the district election officer, who will then remind the BLO to follow up on the missed calls.

During the initial phase of the SIR, which commenced on Tuesday, BLOs will visit households to distribute enumeration forms and gather voter information. The draft voters' list for the state will be released at the conclusion of this phase.

In the subsequent stage, political parties and individual voters will have the opportunity to lodge complaints regarding the draft list, which the ECI will address.

Finally, in the third stage, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) will resolve complaints from political entities or individual voters, leading to the publication of the final voters' list.

This comprehensive process is anticipated to conclude by March 2026, with the last SIR conducted in West Bengal dating back to 2002.