'Rectify the glitches, or ...': CM Mamata writes of CEC; urges to stop 'unplanned' Bengal SIR

NEW DELHI: West Bengal main curate Mamata Banerjee connected Saturday wrote to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, criticising the "procedural violations" and "administrative lapses" successful the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which is presently nether mode successful the poll-bound state.Mamata Banerjee called the workout "unplanned, arbitrary and adhoc" and urged the canvass assemblage main to halt the SIR if glitches stay unattainted."I americium erstwhile again constrained to constitute to you successful bid to spot connected grounds my sedate interest regarding the superior irregularities, procedural violations, and administrative lapses being witnessed during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls successful West Bengal," she wrote successful a letter. She besides expressed apprehension astir the large-scale disenfranchisement of eligible voters, which she said would beryllium a "direct battle connected the foundational principles of antiauthoritarian governance"."I powerfully impulse you to instantly code and rectify the glitches, code the flaws and marque the indispensable corrections, failing which this unplanned, arbitrary and adhoc workout indispensable beryllium halted. If allowed to continúe successful its contiguous form, it volition effect successful irreparable damage, large-scale disenfranchisement of eligible voters, and a nonstop battle connected the foundational principles of antiauthoritarian governance, " she further wrote.

In November past year, describing the ongoing SIR successful West Bengal arsenic “unplanned, chaotic, and dangerous,” Mamata Banerjee said that the concern had reached an “alarming stage” pursuing the deaths of aggregate booth-level officers (BLOs), including an anganwadi idiosyncratic successful Jalpaiguri.In a missive addressed to Gyanesh Kumar, Banerjee said she had “time and again flagged my superior concerns” but had present been “compelled to write” arsenic the concern had deteriorated sharply.She wrote that the mode successful which the EC had pushed the SIR onto officials and residents was “not lone unplanned and chaotic, but besides dangerous”, alleging the lack of basal preparedness, wide communication, oregon capable planning.According to her, the process has been “crippled from time one” by mediocre training, disorder implicit mandatory documentation, and the adjacent impossibility of gathering voters during their enactment hours.She warned that the credibility of the elector rotation itself was astatine risk, saying BLOs were being forced to enactment “far beyond quality limits” portion balancing their main duties arsenic teachers and frontline workers.Banerjee said astir BLOs were struggling with online submissions due to the fact that of server failures and repeated information mismatches, making it “almost certain” that close elector information could not beryllium uploaded by the 4 December deadline. She added that galore BLOs, nether fearfulness of punitive action, were being pushed to taxable incorrect entries, “risking disenfranchisement of genuine voters”.