Forced to include names in Bengal electoral rolls unfairly, claims a section of BLOs

Kolkata, Nov 23 (SocialNews.XYZ) The United Platform for Booth Level Officers (BLO) on Sunday alleged that some of them have been facing pressure from certain quarters to include people's names in Bengal's voter list through illegal means during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state.

General Secretary of BLO Oikko Mancha (United Platform for BLOs), Swapan Mondal, said that at times, there is administrative pressure regarding data entry and meeting deadlines in uploading enumeration forms.

However, there is another pressure above all these, which is to include names of people in the voters' list by including "wrong information" about their parents' identity, Mondal said.

"Pressure is being created on the BLOs differently. On Saturday, I received a call from Malda district. I have come to know that four or five people are registering their names at the same time by introducing the name of one person as their father or grandmother. One person's name is being used as the father or grandfather of several individuals. A nexus is going on to include such citizens in the voters' list, and for that, BLOs are being pressurised," said Mondal.

He alleged that those four or five people do not have a direct relationship with the person whose name figured in the 2002 voters' list, the last time SIR of Bengal's electoral rolls was held.

"There is a lot of pressure being put on the BLOs by certain quarters so that they fill the form in that way. They are not able to open their mouths out of fear. But if this continues, how will an error-free voter list be prepared?" Mondal asked.

However, he did not clarify which particular political party or leaders from any outfit were putting pressure on the BLOs.

He informed that a deputation in this regard has already been submitted to the office of West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal.

Source: IANS