Kolkata, March 7 -- West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal on Saturday stated that the publication of the supplementary list of electors is under discussion with the state-level committee appointed by the Supreme Court and will be released following the committee's final decision.
The statement gains significance after Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary, wrote on Friday to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Bengal CEO, requesting the publication of the supplementary electoral rolls along with the day-to-day status of SIR adjudication cases.
"There is a procedure regarding the publication of the supplementary list. The matter is under discussion by the state-level committee appointed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. As soon as the committee takes the final decision, the supplementary list will be published," said Agarwal.
"The Hon'ble Supreme Court has directed that the supplementary electoral rolls incorporating the outcomes of adjudication must be published on a daily basis so as to ensure transparency and enable voters and stakeholders to remain informed of the status of claims and objections. These supplementary rolls are required to reflect the outcomes of adjudications undertaken by the competent judicial authorities dealing with claims, objections, and discrepancies relating to the inclusion or exclusion of electors," Banerjee had written.
According to Commission sources, the state CEO office will propose before the full bench of the Election Commission of India, which is slated to reach the state on a three-day visit on Sunday evening, on the publication of the supplementary list on the basis of the number of disposals of the 60.06 lakh cases that are presently being adjudicated by judicial officers. If it gets the nod of the full bench, it will come out with the same. Till Friday evening, over 7.5 lakh cases 'under adjudication' had been verified and disposed of by judicial officers. Another 138 judicial officers have been engaged by the Calcutta High Court for fast-tracking verification and disposal in Cooch Behar, Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.