The first day of hearings under West Bengal’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll concluded smoothly today. The hearings began at 10 a.m. under the strict supervision of 4,600 micro observers. Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) are conducting the process, with one ERO and 10 AEROs overseeing hearings in each Assembly constituency.

 

Across the state’s 294 Assembly constituencies, hearings are being held simultaneously at 11 tables per constituency, totalling 3,234 tables. On average, 100 to 150 voters were heard at each table. The Election Commission has stated that once the hearing process is completed, the final electoral roll will be published on February 14.

 

From early morning, hearing centres in Kolkata and districts witnessed heavy activity today, with many voters whose names were missing from the draft roll lining up with their documents for verification.

 

Meanwhile, the Chief Electoral Officer’s office has decided that certain voters marked as “unmapped” would not be called for hearings. These are voters whose names or lineage are clearly available in the 2002 electoral roll but could not be digitally mapped in the BLO app due to technical issues during data conversion.

 

District Election Officers have been informed that no hearing notices will be served to such voters. Any notices already generated will be kept on hold with the EROs/AEROs.