Kolkata, Jan 10 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday appointed four more special roll observers for West Bengal to review the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, which is currently at the second stage of hearing claims and objections on the draft voters’ list.

The four additional special roll observers are all serving Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, with three of them currently serving in the national capital, New Delhi, and the fourth serving in Tripura. The four special roll observers for West Bengal whose appointments were announced by the Commission on Saturday are Ratan Biswas, Vikas Sinha, Sailesh and Sandeep Rathore.

Currently, West Bengal has one ECI-appointed special roll observer, Subrata Gupta, a retired IAS officer from the West Bengal cadre. Under Gupta, there are 16 ECI-appointed roll observers, all serving IAS officers.

In addition, the Commission has appointed over 3,500 micro-observers to review the process of hearings on claims and objections to the draft voters’ list in West Bengal. These micro-observers are either Central government employees or employees of Central government undertakings or public sector banks, mainly in Group B categories and some in Group A categories.

Incidentally, on Saturday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state is being carried out with the sole objective of deleting and excluding names of existing voters, rather than correcting errors or including new voters.

Insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said the Commission’s decision to appoint the additional four special roll observers came as the ECI does not find the roles of certain district magistrates — also district electoral officers (DEOs) — electoral registration officers (EROs) and assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) in conformity with ECI guidelines for the revision exercise.

The draft voters’ list in West Bengal was published on December 16 last year. The final voters’ list will be published on February 14 next year. Soon after that, the ECI will announce the polling dates for the crucial Assembly elections in West Bengal, scheduled for next year.

–IANS

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