Kolkata, Dec 10 (IANS) Amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal, the digitisation of 99.53 per cent of enumeration forms has been completed, and the number of excludable voters stands at little over 57 lakhs.

The scheduled deadline for completion of the enumeration form digitisation is December 11 evening, after which the draft voters’ list will be published on December 16.

According to sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officers (CEO), West Bengal, of the 57 lakh potentially excludable voters, a little over 24 lakh are dead.

The number of shifted voters identified till Tuesday afternoon is a little over 20 lakhs. The number of untraceable voters identified till that period was around 11 lakhs.

The rest of the potentially excludable voters are either duplicate voters, having their names in more than one place, or voters deemed to be excludable for other reasons.

Meanwhile, the CEO’s office has slapped show-cause notices on two booth-level officers (BLO), one electoral resignation officer (ERO), and one assistant electoral resignation officer (AERO) for deliberate flouting of the Election Commission of India (ECI) mandated guidelines to be followed in the revision exercise.

All four electoral officers who have been slapped with the show-cause notices are attached to the Baruipur (Purba) Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district.

The first stage of the three-stage SIR will be completed with the publication of the draft voters’ list on December 16.

After the second stage is over, the third and final stage, the publication of the final electoral roll, will be done on February 14. Soon after the publication of the final electoral roll, the ECI is expected to announce the dates for the crucial Assembly elections in the state.

On Wednesday, the CEO, West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, will hold a crucial meeting with the five additional special roll observers appointed by ECI last week. These five additional special roll observers will be in charge of the five organisational divisions in the state.

–IANS

src/svn