Challenges in upcoming hearing phase likely to outweigh enumeration says EC special observer

Kolkata, Dec 16 (PTI) Stiff challenges lay in wait before the Election Commission for the upcoming hearing phase of SIR in West Bengal, with difficulties likely to outweigh those during the now-concluded enumeration period, said Subrata Gupta, the EC-appointed special observer for the exercise.
    Speaking exclusively to PTI on the eve of Tuesday's publication of the politically hypersensitive list, where names of over 58 lakh voters are likely to be deleted in the draft roll itself, Gupta said the hearing phase challenges are likely to be daunting in the wake of the paucity of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant EROs (or AEROs) in the state, who would be conducting the mammoth task over the next 45 days or so.
    The commission has revealed that of the 7.66 crore enumeration forms that were issued for electors based on their presence in the 2025 rolls in the state, over 58 lakh forms were found "uncollected" on grounds of voters either remaining absent at their registered addresses, permanently shifted, dead or with duplicate roll entries.
    "Of the total enumeration forms we collected, there are over 1.34 crore that contain logical discrepancies. The inconsistencies range from same names appearing both as father and mother of certain voters to abnormal age differences between electors and their parents or grandparents. These errors may be bonafide in nature. They could also be malafide.
    "Some 30 lakh unmapped forms with the 2002 list have also been received, which are included in this discrepancy list. Over 85 lakh forms are riddled with name mismatch issues with the 2002 rolls. Then there would be claims and objections from aggrieved voters whose names get deleted from the draft rolls. We have to conduct hearings for each of these cases to ensure we publish an accurate final roll," the retired IAS officer said.
    Although Gupta said it would be premature to predict the exact number of voters who would be brought under the purview of hearings, a quasi-judicial process, a senior EC official said he wouldn't be surprised if that figure touched the 2 crore mark.
    Gupta informed PTI that currently, the state is armed with a total of 3,300 EROs and AEROs. Simple maths would reveal that each of those officers would have to conduct hearings of close to 140 applicants every day for the next 45 days to complete the process.
    Even if each hearing took a modest 10 minutes, it would mean that the daily hearing schedule would have to last for twenty-three-and-a-half hours, an impossibility.
    "We have requested the EC to provide us with an additional 2,500-3,000 EROs/AEROs. Once those appointments are finalised, we have done a rough calculation that each officer will then have to conduct between 50 and 100 hearings a day, which itself would be a stiff task since that would entail a daily hearing span of over 500 minutes which doesn’t happen even at high courts," Gupta stated.
    Stressing the need to impart "quality training to the EROs and AEROs" ahead of the hearings, the special observer said that both competence and knowledge of the officers about the quasi-judicial exercise would be quintessential in ensuring that an accurate final roll is published.
    "We have sought concrete guidance from the EC in matters of the hearings since the process involves allowing or disallowing individuals from exercising their franchise, and hence they can't be arbitrary or subjective," said Gupta.
    The tricky bit of completing the phase by the scheduled deadline of February 7 next year would also entail printing and distribution of hearing notices to applicants in duplicate, logging those notices in the EC database and arranging alternative hearing dates in the eventuality of an applicant's inability to attend the session on valid grounds, he added.
    Hailing the BLOs for their "excellent work" in completing the enumeration exercise within the stipulated deadline, Gupta said he was confident of handling the task "despite the ruling Trinamool Congress dispensation remaining unfavourably disposed towards it right from the beginning".
    "I was confident of seeing through this phase since it was primarily a citizen-led process and the commission had the support of the people who wanted an error-free voters' list. Political opinions won't matter much over here," the former bureaucrat who served in West Bengal in various capacities for well over three decades in the past, said.
    Gupta said that surveillance of the BLO-driven enumeration through his initial appointment as special observer and subsequent appointments of five other special observers took the number of deleted voters from 32 lakh to 58 lakh in quick time over the last 12 days of the phase.
    "The challenge was psychological. The pressure on the officers was initially only from the politicians. The observers brought about the counter-pressure which changed the work environment," he said.
    Gupta, however, admitted that there were lapses on the part of the commission in informing voters about the SIR exercise in greater detail.
    "The 2002 rolls were in manual mode. Our IT team faced huge challenges in digitising them, and even then, technical loopholes have accounted for mapping mismatches," he said.
    Asked what voters in West Bengal can expect out of the draft rolls and whether they should brace for unpleasant surprises, Gupta said, "There would be many more pleasant surprises than unpleasant ones in the draft rolls."

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)