Kolkata, Nov 14 (IANS) The fresh deadline for distribution of enumeration forms for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by the Election Commission of India (ECI) will end on Friday, and just around 70 lakh enumeration forms are yet to be distributed.

Officials from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, are confident that, going by the rate of average daily distribution of enumeration forms since the process started on November 4, the distribution of the remaining 70 lakh forms will be completed easily on the last day of the extended deadline.

As per figures available from the CEO’s office, a total of 6.98 crore (91.19 per cent) enumeration forms have been distributed in the state up to 8.00 p.m. on Thursday. The total number of electors in West Bengal as per the electoral roll as on October 27 is 7,66,37,529.

The initial deadline for completing the distribution of enumeration forms expired on November 11, as around 15 per cent of the voters in the state have not received them.

Thereafter, November 14 was set as the new deadline for completing the distribution of the enumeration form. Completing the distribution of enumeration forms will also mean the end of the first stage of the three-stage SIR process in West Bengal.

The first stage of the three-stage SIR in West Bengal started on November 4. The entire process is expected to be completed by March next year. The last time the SIR was conducted in West Bengal was in 2002.

Voters whose names or their parents’ names were not in the 2002 voter list will have to submit any of the 11 documents specified by the Commission to retain their names in the electoral rolls.

Voters whose names or their parents’ names were mentioned in the 2002 electoral list will have to furnish any one of the 11 identity documents identified by the ECI.

Political heat in West Bengal over SIR has been at its peak since the day Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar announced the exercise.

Trinamool Congress has been opposing the exercise since the beginning, claiming that SIR was the Union government’s “ploy” to “slap” the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state.

The BJP, on the other hand, claims that Trinamool Congress’ opposition to the revision exercise was out of their fear that the names of illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya voters would be deleted from the electoral rolls.

–IANS

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