ECI threatens Bengal DEOs, EROs, AEROs with prosecution if any foreigner found in final voter list
KOLKATA: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday threatened District Electoral Officers (DEOs), Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) in West Bengal with prosecution if any foreigner is found in the final voter list after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
The ECI has also directed the DEOs to personally verify all documents uploaded in the data entry system by 16 February. Only the documents in the list approved by the Commission should be uploaded, it said.
The ECI full bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar held a virtual conference with the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal, additional CEO, Special Rolls Observer in charge of Bengal Subrata Gupta, DEOs, EROs and AEROs on Friday.
“DEOs, EROs, AEROs should note that every document and decision shall be stored in in the system for years and even if a foreigner is detected after 1 year, 2 years, or 5 years, the concerned officers will have to face prosecution. It is a very risky gamble for IAS officers who have long careers left,” the full bench of the national poll body warned poll officials in Bengal during the virtual conference.
The Commission bench strongly pulled up the DMs of Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Malda, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas and Purba Bardhaman districts for their negligence in verifying documents required for the SIR exercise in the state. It also cautioned the DM of Purba Bardhaman not to give any ‘political statements.’
During the conference, the full bench of the Commission in a presentation showed how invalid documents like newspaper clippings, blank pages, illegible images etc in many cases have been uploaded in the data system of the Commission.
The poll panel has also directed Agarwal to "send all cases that come to his notice where cases have been verified by the DEOs on inadmissible and illegible documents for direct action against such officers by the ECI henceforth."
SIR hearings have already been completed in the state and the process of document verification is going on before the publication of the final voters’ list on 28 February.
Meanwhile, the ECI has summoned the state chief secretary Nandini Chakraborty to appear before it seeking the state government’s reply on why no FIR has been lodged against four officers including two West Bengal Civil Service Executive (WBCS) on charges of illegal inclusion of voters in the electoral rolls during August last year.
Chakraborty left for Delhi on Friday to face the national poll body.