West Bengal polls: Offline appeal offices closed all over, deadline worry for SIR-deleted voters

KOLKATA: Many people flocked to govt offices to file their tribunal appeals in offline mode on Friday, only to be told that it was a "govt holiday" and that officials were "busy with other tasks pertaining to the upcoming assembly elections".

Though supplementary lists are being published since March 24, the new anxiety among these voters is whether they will be able to file their appeals for consideration of the tribunal within the stipulated time.

Between March 24 and April 2, eight supplementary lists have been published and it is mentioned in each list that the excluded electors can make appeal before the tribunal within 15 days of publication of the specific list. Even as there is an online option to file the appeal through the ECI NET platform, a large number of deleted voters across the city are banking on the offline mode to reach out to the tribunals with their prayers.




Dharmendra Singh, a deleted voter from south Kolkata, rued, "I went to the Survey Building at Alipore today to file my appeal for the tribunal as was directed by officials. But I was told first that the appeal work was not available because it was a govt holiday. It is to my knowledge that EC work is supposed to be carried out even on holidays. The official, when told about it, reasoned that they were busy with other election-related work. I have been asked to come on Saturday."

Like Singh, several other struck-off voters flagged concerns that almost a week has elapsed since their names were deleted and they have only one week left to comply with the process to file appeals before the tribunal appellate authority. "Who will take the responsibility if I miss the deadline to make my appeal before the tribunal, the last chance for me to get my voting right back?" asked another deleted elector, Soma Das.

The SIR victims from north Kolkata, having paid visit to Jessop Building on Friday, also returned with similar experience. Kusum Dubey, a deleted voter, said, "The building was open and some officials were there but they cited lack of time to do offline appeal work. An official asked me to get it done online as they were busy with other works. If I could do it, I would not have taken the pain to visit the office. However, the officials asked me to come on Monday."
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