
Kolkata, Jan 21 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday decided to publish two separate lists of “unmapped” and “logical discrepancy” cases identified during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal.
Although a division bench of the Supreme Court, earlier this week, had directed the ECI to publish the list of “logical discrepancy” cases identified in the course of “progeny-mapping” and summoned for hearing, it had been silent on the publication of a separate list of “unmapped” voters.
“So in a way the ECI is taking the apex court’s order a step ahead by deciding to published two separate lists, the first for the ‘logical discrepancy’ cases as directed by the apex court, and the second for the ‘unmapped’ voters, which the apex court had not directed,” said an insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal.
“Unmapped” voters are those who were unable to establish any linkage, either through “self mapping” or through “progeny mapping” with the voters’ list of 2002, the last time when such intensive revision was carried out in West Bengal.
On the other hand, the “logical discrepancy” cases are those in which weird family-tree data has been detected in the course of “progeny mapping”.
The number of “unmapped” voters in West Bengal is 31,68,426, while the number of “logical discrepancies stands at 94,49,132. In a notification on Wednesday, the poll body said that everyone will be able to see both the lists on January 25.
All those lists are with the district magistrate, also the district election officers (DEOs) and the electoral registration officers (EROs).
The certificates and admit cards of the Madhyamik examination, the secondary examination conducted by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), will be accepted as authentic identity-proof documents during the hearing sessions on the claims and objections in the draft voters’ list.
Earlier in the day, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar directed the acting director general of West Bengal Police, Rajeev Kumar, to abide by the Supreme Court order to ensure an absolutely peaceful law and order situation in the state over the ongoing SIR in the state.
–IANS
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