Uphill task: EC has 48 hrs to clear 55L cases before Feb 21 deadline

Kolkata: About 55 lakh cases, including the documents of 30 lakh-odd electors that were sent to EROs/AEROs for reverification, are yet to be disposed of though merely 48 hours are left to the EC SIR deadline. According to the EC schedule, scrutiny of documents and disposal are supposed to be completed by Feb 21.
The EC had so far identified a little over 4.4 lakh ineligible electors, after scrutinising their SIR documents, and those names would not be included in the final electoral roll, a senior EC official said on Thursday. "About 25 lakh cases are currently pending with EROs/AEROs for disposal and micro-observers sent 30 lakh cases to EROs/AEROs for reverification, following the identification of discrepancies, such as illegible forms, improper document upload, and lack of proper linkage. Altogether, 55 lakh cases are yet to be disposed of," he added.Asked how such a large number of electors—more than one-third 1.5 crore voters, whose hearing notices were generated—including unmapped and those with logical discrepancies, who were called for hearings, could be cleared in just 48 hours, the official said, "It's not a big deal as we have 8,000 officers. If EROs/AEROs cannot dispose of all cases, we will seek more time from the commission. I will ask DEOs if they will need more time. Once we get a response, we will seek an extension beyond Feb 21.""BLOs/EROs/AEROs were instructed to upload proper documents, which they did not in 8-10 lakh cases out of the 30 lakh cases, sent to EROs/AEROs for reverification. They will face action for the electors' harassment. In many cases, they mentioned ‘I see and approve', which is not acceptable and we will take action against them," the official added.In another development, the election commission also made it clear that the EROs/AEROs, who missed the Feb-14 deadline for uploading the hearing documents of 1.1 lakh voters, would face action. "Why will voters suffer for them? The EROs/AEROs will have to discharge their duties following EC guidelines. Once we get the reports from DEOs, actions will be taken against errant EROs/AEROs," an EC official said, adding those the 1.1 lakh electors, whose hearing documents were not uploaded, would also be excluded from the final electoral roll. They will have to submit Form 6 to enrol as new voters.