West Bengal CEO orders printing of SIR application forms in state

Kolkata, Sep 16 (IANS) West Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Manoj Kumar Agarwal, has given instructions to start printing of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) application forms (enumeration forms) in the state, giving rise to speculation that the exercise could be conducted in the state after Durga Puja festivities.

On Tuesday, the CEO launched training for the officers involved in the SIR in the state. About 4,000 officers from the state attended this training. Those who attended the training included EROs, AEROs, ADMs and a few DMs.

The remaining 75,000 booth-level officers of the state will be trained on SIR before Durga Puja. The CEO's office said that EROs and AEROs will train the BLOs. The training has been asked to be completed by September 21-22.

Sources in the CEO's office said that the number of forms to be printed will be twice the total number of voters in the state. According to the CEO's office, there are currently about 7.65 crore voters in the state. Therefore, about 15 crore forms will be printed.

As it is not possible to print such a large number of forms from a specific place, therefore, the CEO's office has asked for information about which districts will be able to print the forms.

It was also learnt that if such forms could not be printed in any of the districts, then the same would be printed and sent from Kolkata.

The CEO's office said that in the case of Bihar, the forms were printed from one place, which took a lot of time. This time, printing the forms will be done in the various districts, which will save time as the work will be done quickly.

The BJP has been demanding the SIR of West Bengal electoral rolls, alleging that a large number of illegal voters, including Bangladeshi and Rohingyas, are present in the current voters' list. The ruling Trinamool Congress, on the other hand, has opposed the move. Party supremo Mamata Banerjee threatened to launch a bigger movement if the names of legal citizens are deleted from the voter's list.

--IANS

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