Kolkata, Dec 7 (IANS) With the digitisation of enumeration forms in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal almost nearing conclusion, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed the electoral officers in the state to focus on minute ‘progeny’ mapping amid serious flaws being detected with regards to the parents’ identities in the current voters’ list in the state as on October 27.

“Progeny” mapping is done to determine whether the names of the parents of a voter on the current voters’ list match those on the 2002 list, the last time the SIR was conducted in West Bengal.

Sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said that the ECI is emphasising minute “progeny” mapping, following instances in which the names of the parents of some voters in the current list differed from those in the 2002 list.

These instances surfaced during the ongoing exercise of enumeration form digitisation, which included the two aspects of “self” mapping and “progeny” mapping.

At the same time, the CEO’s office insider said, the ECI had also decided to conduct a random survey of the duly filled enumeration forms collected by the booth-level officers (BLOs) in every booth in the state.

Under this random survey, a certain number of collected enumeration forms in a booth or a part will be chosen for a random survey to detect whether there has been any major flaw in the data for that booth or the part. The survey would be conducted under the supervision of specially appointed observers to review the ongoing revision exercise in the state.

The ECI has also reminded that more than the BLOs, the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) will be responsible for effectively conducting the mapping exercise.

The total number of voters as per the list on October 27 is 7,66,37,529. The SIR exercise started on November 4.

The draft voters’ list will be published on December 16, while the final voters’ list, after completion of all related processes, will be published on February 14.

The ECI has already given fresh instructions to electoral officers at different levels engaged in the ongoing SIR regarding the preparation of a separate list of deceased voters in the state.

The central election body has directed electoral officers to re-check the data of those who have already been identified as deceased voters during the digitisation and mapping of the duly filled enumeration forms with the list for 2002.

The ECI has also specified three sources from which the re-verification of data on deceased voters should be done.

The first source is the record of deaths registered with different municipal corporations, municipalities, and panchayats in the state.

The second source, as specified by the ECI, is the death records available with insurance companies and banks. The third and final source of re-verification is the list of beneficiaries under different social welfare schemes of the state government, especially those related to death benefits.

–IANS

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