Bengal SIR: ECI makes BLOs, supervisors accountable to ensure 85+ voters not summoned for hearings

Kolkata, Jan 2
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has made the Booth-Level Officers (BLOs) and the BLO Supervisors accountable for ensuring that the voters who have attained the age of 85 or above do not have to appear physically at the hearing centres for attending the sessions on the claims and objections on the draft voters’ list.

The ECI, at the same time, has also made the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and the Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) accountable to ensure that enough awareness drives are conducted in the areas under their respective jurisdictions to make people aware of its decision giving relaxation to post-85-year-old voters from appearing physically to attend the hearing sessions.

“In case any post-85 voter has already been served with a hearing notice, the BLOs or BLO Supervisors will have to contact them personally and request them not to come to the hearing centre. In case of such voters, their documents will be verified at their residences,” an insider from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, confirmed.

The same principle will apply to voters with critical medical conditions. In such cases, whether these voters will be required to attend a hearing or have their documents verified at their residence will be decided on a case-by-case basis by the ERO or AERO concerned.

However, sources at the CEO’s office confirmed that under no circumstances can the demand from Trinamool Congress for extending the relaxation to post-60 voters be entertained. “Neither the Commission nor the CEO’s office has enough strength to do that. So under all practical reasons, the Commission had decided to extend the relaxation only to post-85 voters,” the CEO’s office insider added.

On December 29 last year, the ECI specified the categories of voters in whose cases the hearings will be conducted at their residences only. These categories include post-85-year-old voters, those with critical illness, and differently-abled voters.

However, even after these clear instructions from the ECI, there have been instances of such exempted category voters coming to the hearing centres, which prompted some political parties to make a political issue out of it.

Amid such controversies, the ECI has now made the EROS and AEROs accountable for ensuring that the voters who have attained the age of 85 or above do not have to appear physically at the hearing centres