DEPUTY ELECTION Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti will reach West Bengal on October 7 for a two-day visit. According to sources, Bharti would be accompanied by the Election Commission’s IT specialist, Seema Khanna. The visit assumes significance amid reports that preparations are underway in the state for the implementation of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in future. Bharti will arrive in Kolkata on October 7 evening. On October 8, he will meet all District Magistrates and take stock of the preparations for implementation of SIR in the state, the sources claimed. Meanwhile, the sources said, recruitment to posts of booth level officers (BLOs) is nearly complete. All major political parties are in the process of submitting the names of their Booth Level Agents (BLAs), they added. Meanwhile, Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal has written to all District Electoral Officers (DEOs) regarding preparedness for likely electoral roll revision and also sent a letter to the Chief Secretary of state government, urging the authorities to fill all posts of electoral registration officers and assistant electoral registration officers at the earliest. In August, CEO Agarwal also convened an all-party meeting. A senior EC official said, “We are preparing for all situations and are trying to complete our preparations.” The CEO, in his letter to all DMs, who are DEOs as well, mentioned, “.it is hereby directed that, electoral registration officers EROs shall not delegate the discharge of any of their statutory duties and functions to any other official or person and will not share their ERONet login ID and OTP with any data entry operator or any other official or person under any circumstance whatsoever.” According to EC sources, before Durga Puja, the state government filled BLO posts. As the next step, the poll panel will check the BLO list and review the proposals of all political parties.
