EC identifies technical problem in 2002 rolls, suspends hearings for ‘unmapped’ voters in Bengal.

The Election Commission has issued new instructions to district election officials in West Bengal, stating that voters marked as “unmapped” in the BLO app due to technical issues related to the digitization of the 2002 electoral rolls during the ongoing SIR exercise should not be summoned for hearings, even if such notices have been generated automatically by the system.

The directive, released by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, on Saturday, explained that the issue has emerged due to the incomplete conversion of the PDF version of the 2002 electoral rolls, the last Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducted in the state, into CSV format. This has resulted in linkage failures within the booth-level officer (BLO) app for several electors.

It stated that even though they are marked as “unmapped” in the system, many of these electors possess valid self or progeny links with the hard copy of the 2002 electoral rolls, which have been duly authenticated by district election officers (DEOs) and published on the CEO’s website.
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The CEO’s office indicated that hearing notices automatically generated in such instances need not be delivered and should be kept at the level of the electoral registration officer (ERO) or assistant electoral registration officer (AERO).

According to the instructions, extracts of the 2002 electoral rolls should be sent to the DEO for verification in line with the Election Commission’s guidelines. After verification, EROs or AEROs may make appropriate decisions and upload the necessary documents for case resolution.

The directive also permits BLOs to be assigned for field verification, including capturing photographs of the concerned electors for system upload.

“This directive may be temporary. If it is determined that hearings are necessary in certain cases, they will proceed only after thorough verification,” an official informed PTI.

However, it was clarified that if discrepancies are identified later, either during the review of the hard copy of the 2002 electoral rolls or upon receiving complaints, the concerned electors may be called for hearings after proper notice.

The instructions have been disseminated to all DEOs as part of the ongoing SIR exercise in West Bengal to ensure the accuracy of electoral rolls while addressing technical challenges in legacy data integration.