Kolkata, 18 February: With four days remaining for completion of scrutiny of supporting identity documents submitted during claims and objections to West Bengal’s draft electoral roll, over 1.14 lakh records are yet to be uploaded into the verification system, raising the possibility of a deadline extension.
Sources in the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) office said 1,14,772 documents remained pending for upload as of Tuesday night. Officials are currently carrying out two parallel processes — scrutiny of already uploaded documents and digitisation of submissions received during the final phase of hearings that concluded on February 14. Scrutiny of the remaining documents will begin only after the uploading process is completed.
Districts with the highest pending uploads include Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and Kolkata (Uttar). Officials indicated that had the uploading process been completed along with the hearings, electoral officers could have focused solely on verification, reducing the likelihood of missing the February 21 deadline.
Meanwhile, scrutiny of uploaded records has identified nearly 35,000 voters who allegedly submitted fake or unlisted identity documents and may face exclusion from the final electoral roll. The final voters’ list is scheduled for publication on February 28, after which a full bench of the Election Commission of India will visit the state on March 1 to review the situation ahead of the Assembly election schedule announcement.
