Kolkata, Dec 19 (IANS) The office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal has sought the permission of the Election Commission of India (ECO) to allow assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) to assist the electoral registration officers (EROs) during the hearing sessions on the claims and objections on the draft voters’ list which was published on December 16.

Initially, it was decided that 10 EROs would handle the hearing session for each of the 294 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal. However, insiders from the CEO’s office pointed out that, considering the huge number of voters in each constituency who would be summoned for hearings, there is consideration to allow AEROs to assist the EROs in those sessions.

“If the permission on this count is available from the ECI’s headquarters in New Delhi, in that case, the hearing sessions will be handled by the 10 EROs assisted by 10 AEROs,” a CEO’s office insider said.

Meanwhile, the Commission had also sent a request to the Union Home Ministry for the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) to secure the CEO’s office in central Kolkata immediately.

It is learnt that, as per the ECI’s proposal, the CAPF deployment will continue till the time the model code of conduct is enforced in the state after the dates for the crucial Assembly elections in the state are announced.

The final voters’ list is slated to be announced on February 14 next year, and immediately after that, the dates for the Assembly elections in the state will be announced.

The request for deployment of CAPF has been made amid continuing protests by the members of a Trinamool Congress-backed association of booth-level officers (BLOs) in front of the CEO’s office almost daily.

With the agitations at times getting out of control, the CEO’s office insider said, the ECI is not happy with the role played by the state police forces personnel in controlling the agitations, and hence the request for CAPF deployment to man the security at the CEO’s office has been forwarded to the Union Home Ministry.

–IANS

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