SIR: ECI seeks suggestions from Bengal DEOs for simplifying technological applications

Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has sought suggestions from the District Magistrates (DMs), as well as the District Electoral Officers (DEOs), on how to make the use of the technological applications for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal simpler.

Sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, clarified that the suggestions from the DMs, as well as the DEOs in the matter, had been sought because of the two factors.

The first factor is complaints from a section of the DEOs that certain technological applications introduced in the revision exercise were not user-friendly and complicated. They said the subordinate electoral officers, including Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), and Booth-Level Officers (BLOs), found the applications complicated.

The second factor is to address the allegations raised by the Trinamool Congress and West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee that such technological applications, including the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the revision exercise, had been deliberately introduced to delete names of genuine voters from the final voters' list.

Even on Tuesday, the Chief Minister alleged that the app used by the ECI in the ongoing SIR in the state was designed by the Information Technology Cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The CEO's office sources also said that the higher officials of the Commission assured the DMs, as well as the DEOs, that their suggestions on how to make such technological applications simple would be implemented as far as possible.

"The simplification of the technological application will make the process of hearing for the voters identified as "logical discrepancy" cases much smoother and faster.

With the process of hearing for "unmapped" voters almost complete, the process of serving notices for hearing to the voters identified as "logical discrepancy" cases has already started on Tuesday.

The hearing sessions for the "logical discrepancy" cases will start on January 13. The final voters' list for West Bengal will be published on February 14, which means that the hearing for the "logical discrepancy" cases will have to be completed within less than a month.