KOLKATA: West Bengal Industries minister Sashi Panja, who also holds the Women and Child Welfare portfolio in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, on Sunday alleged that she was harassed during the hearing of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State.
Sashi was served a notice by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to appear at the SIR hearing centre at Keshab Academy in North Kolkata today, as she allegedly did not fill out the enumeration form and did not provide proper details as per the guidelines of the Commission.
After coming out of the hearing centre, she told the media, “We are a four-member family, my husband, two daughters and me. But the Commission called only me for the hearing. The notice served by the Commission claimed that I did not fill out the form properly, giving details of my relatives. It has also expressed doubt whether I am a legal voter. That’s why I have been asked to face the hearing process.”
“My name was figured in the voters’ list of 2002, SIR, and despite that, they served me the notice. I have shown my Aadhaar card to them as a document in the hearing, but they wanted to know whether I have any other documents out of the 11 required for the SIR exercise. This is sheer harassment,” the senior minister in the Trinamool Congress government said.
Showing a copy of the enumeration form, she alleged, “In the notice, the Commission has asked me to produce attested copies of documents before the hearing. I have shown them attested copies. But why did they ask me to show them 11 more documents, which are already genuine with proper spellings of names and addresses? I hope the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) will look into the matter.”
She also alleged that the exercise was being carried out "in haste and without adequate preparation".
Panja asserted that the notice was served as she was marked "unmapped".
“I have submitted all documents during the SIR process, yet my name is showing as unmapped. This is certainly not my fault. I won’t show them my passport, and this is my protest against the unplanned process. I am a three-time MLA in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, and now they will decide whether my name will be on the voters’ list. This (the notice) was my reward," she said.
The ruling party, led by its supremo, Mamata Banerjee, in Bengal, has been demanding that the national poll body stop the SIR process in the State claiming that it has been conducting the exercise allegedly with instructions from the BJP-led central government.