A Trinamul Congress delegation led by Chandrima Bhattacharya met the CEO of Election Commission of India, Manoj Kumar Agarwal and demanded that the commission will have to ensure that those appearing for the hearing are not harassed.
The other members of the delegation were minister Dr Shashi Panja, Partha Bhowmik, Bapi Halder and Pulak Roy.
Talking to the Press, Mrs Bhattacharya said the CEO had failed to show any (SOP) regarding the hearing. The hearing will start from 27 December and not from today. “The Election Commission is utterly confused regarding holding of the hearing,” she said.
The minister said the delegation has requested not to take any step that will lead to the harassment of the voters. “If any untoward incident happens, the Election Commission will have to take responsibility. Because of its lack of preparedness, 46 people lost their lives,” she said.
She said if the voters are asked to visit the venue of the hearing, which is 10 km away, then who will bear the expense of travelling, she asked. “In rural areas, the venue should not be set up in far off places,” she said adding “Trinamul Congress will not tolerate deletion of the names of the voters if they fail to turn up at the venue.”
Mr Partha Bhowmick, Trinamul Congress MP, said: “Earlier the panchayat or the municipality offices were selected as venues to hold hearing. Now, these offices are not selected, following objection from the BJP. The Election Commission of India is confused over fixing the venue,” he said.
Dr Panja said: “The names of the online applicants, who have filled SIR forms or the new voters, should be made available to the political parties.”
The delegation demanded to know that in case of migrant workers who will bear their travelling expense, if they have to attend the hearing from other states.”
The delegation also showed concerns of the current plan which proposes summoning all electors requiring hearings to a single centralised location within each Assembly constituency. It said: “Available estimates suggest that over 50,000 electors may be required to appear for hearings at the ERO office, with the entire process being handled by just 10 AEROS. This would effectively require each AERO to conduct more than 160 hearings per day. Does the ECI genuinely believe that such a workload is humanly feasible?”
The letter by the TMC delegation further showed concern about the workload of the officers involved in the exercise. “District Magistrates have been instructed to personally verify each and every document uploaded during hearings, while at the same time, fifteen micro-observers per Assembly Constituency, drawn from Group B Central Government services, are being deployed to scrutinise all forms and entries. These extraordinary measures, applied only in West Bengal, raise serious concerns of selective overreach and unequal treatment. Booth Level Officers are now being instructed to freshly conduct door-to-door verification, placing an additional and unreasonable load on frontline officials who are already stretched thin,” said the delegation to the CEO.