SIR in Bengal: ECI officials clear doubts raised by BLOs on Aadhaar

Kolkata: The members of the Central team of the Election Commission of India (ECI), who are on a two-day visit to West Bengal to review the preparedness of the special intensive revision (SIR) in the state, on Thursday, cleared the doubts raised by the booth-level officers (BLOs) regarding treatment of Aadhaar cards in the revision process amid the Supreme Court’s order directing the commission to include the Aadhaar card as the 12th valid document for establishing identity.

The clarification was given by the Central ECI team members, led by the Deputy Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Bharti, at a meeting with the district-level electoral officials from all levels from the three districts of East Midnapore, Bankura, and Jhargram at Kolaghat in East Midnapore district.

“To queries from the BLOs on this count, the Deputy Election Commissioner clarified that Aadhaar would be treated just as an identity document and not to be treated as an address or citizenship proof, and hence the ECI would not give special importance to Aadhaar,” said an insider from the office of the State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), aware of the proceedings of the meeting.

Later, while speaking to the media persons, West Bengal CEO, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, also clarified the commission’s stand on the treatment of the Aadhaar card.

“The existing voters whose names were there in the voters’ list in 2022, when the last SIR in West Bengal took place, will be automatically considered as valid voters. Those not having names in the list for 2022 will have to submit any of the documents as citizenship proof as mandated by the commission. But in this case, only Aadhaar card furnishing will not be enough, and the voter concerned will need one of the other documents as mandated by the commission,” Agarwal said.

He also added that the commission had made it very clear that under no circumstances will the name of any valid voter be excluded from the voters’ list.

“The BLOs had doubts on a number of issues, which we tried to clarify in the meeting today. The rules regarding the treatment of Aadhaar cards will have to be followed. Those having one more ECI-mandated document other than an Aadhaar card will not face any problem,” Agarwal said.

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