Kolkata, Feb 8 (IANS) The West Bengal government has informed the Election Commission of India (ECI) that it can provide 8,505 Group-B officers for the remainder of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list in the state, sources in the state secretariat said on Sunday. A letter has already been sent to the ECI in this regard.

The development comes a day before the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the SIR case on Monday. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may argue the case herself again, as she did on the previous occasion. The number of Group-B officers available for the SIR exercise has been communicated to the Commission ahead of the hearing.

Last Wednesday, Mamata Banerjee argued the SIR case in the Supreme Court. At that time, the Commission’s lawyer said that the state government had not provided enough Group-B officers for the SIR work, necessitating the deployment of officers from other states. Following this, the court asked the state government to provide a list.

A bench comprising Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Manubhai Pancholi directed the state government to inform the Commission by Monday how many Group-B officers it could provide for the SIR work. Accordingly, the number was communicated to the Commission on Saturday.

In the last hearing, Mamata Banerjee alleged that many voters were summoned for hearings related to the SIR due to spelling mistakes in their names or changes in their surnames.

She claimed that this was causing harassment to ordinary people.

The court had stated that the Election Commission must ensure that no one’s name is removed from the voter list due to minor spelling errors. To address this concern, the state government was asked to provide a list of officers who understand Bengali.

The court said that appointing officers fluent in Bengali for the SIR work would eliminate language- and spelling-related problems. Following this, the Commission informed the court that the West Bengal government has so far appointed only 80 ‘Grade-2’ officers for the SIR work, which it said was completely inadequate.

Instead, a large number of lower-level government employees, such as Anganwadi workers, have been assigned to the task. However, Mamata Banerjee contradicted the Commission’s statement, asserting that the state government has provided all necessary assistance for the SIR work.

–IANS

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