Kolkata, 9 December (H.S):

West Bengal’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll has flagged 56.37 lakh voter entries as “non-collectable”, meaning enumeration forms for these individuals were not received. According to senior officials in the Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office, these names will not be included in the draft voters’ list.

Officials said a total of 7.66 crore enumeration forms have been distributed across the state so far.

Breaking down the 56.37 lakh entries marked for deletion, the CEO office highlighted:

- 23.98 lakh deceased voters

- 10.95 lakh voters whose addresses could not be traced

- 19.65 lakh voters who have shifted to other locations

- 1.32 lakh duplicate entries

- 47,832 names removed for other technical reasons

The Election Commission of India has also upgraded its Booth Level Officer (BLO) mobile application to strengthen the verification process. The updated version is designed to detect fake, duplicate, and outdated entries more efficiently.

Officials said the aim of the SIR exercise is to ensure a clean, accurate, and error-free electoral roll ahead of upcoming elections, reducing chances of discrepancies and preventing voter fraud.

The large-scale identification of unverifiable entries is expected to trigger significant political reactions as the draft roll is prepared in the coming weeks.

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh