Election Commission Urges Swift Verification of Voter Documents in West Bengal

Concerns Over Voter Document Verification

Kolkata, Jan 15: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has expressed worries about the sluggish pace of verifying identification documents from "unmapped" voters involved in the ongoing hearings related to the draft voters' list in West Bengal.

In light of this, the Commission has instructed District Magistrates (DMs), who also serve as District Electoral Officers (DEOs), to accelerate the document verification process, as the final voters list is set to be published by February 14.

Currently, hearings for these "unmapped voters"—those who cannot connect to the 2002 voters’ list via either “self-mapping” or “progeny-mapping”—are underway.

Data from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal indicates that out of 32 lakh unmapped voters, hearings have been finalized for approximately 29 lakh by Wednesday evening.

However, only about 11 lakh of the documents submitted by these voters have been uploaded into the system following the hearings.

The verification stage conducted by the DMs or DEOs has been completed for merely one lakh of the unmapped voters. Given this scenario, the ECI has urged the DMs and DEOs to hasten the verification process, according to a source from the CEO’s office.

The ECI has also reiterated to the DMs/DEOs that only the 13 specified identity documents will be accepted as valid proof. There have been multiple instances where voters submitted documents outside this list, prompting the ECI to issue a fresh reminder.

The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal is expected to wrap up with the final voters’ list publication on February 14, after which the ECI will likely announce the polling dates for the Assembly elections.