K J ‘Bihar’ Rao in EC team to monitor Bengal

‘‘They will be conducting field review and cross-check the electoral rolls and the quality of disposal (of complaints and queries, if any),’’ said Deputy Election Commissioner in-charge of the state, N Balakrishnan.

The observers will be holding meetings with the political parties and undertake field visits from January 11 to 16. They are expected to submit their report to the Commission on January 18.

Last week, the EC asked poll officials to check whether the voters’ identity cards reached genuine voters. But the teams found ‘‘glaring irregularities’’ in distribution. In Bihar, where Rao created ripples during his stint as the EC’s Special Observer during elections, 18 lakh names were found to be either fake or of dead and duplicate voters. They were subsequently deleted from the rolls and some four lakh fresh voters’ names were added to the Bihar list. The Election Commission’s clean-up drive in West Bengal comes on the heels of vociferous opposition complaints.

The state’s Chief Electoral Officer Debashish Sen has also sought a report from the state government regarding complaints that the number of ration card holders in the state exceeds its actual population.

The total number of ration cards issued is estimated to number 8.15 crore, while the total population in the state is 8.02 crore. The ration card is one of the vital documents required for being included in the voters’ list.

The CEO also sought a clarification on the government’s decision to distribute 15.3 million BPL cards in the next seven weeks.

‘‘I have received a complaint on the issue of BPL cards and asked for the government’s comments,’’ Sen said. The EC, which has identified the cleaning up of the voters’ list as a key step to ensure free and fair elections in the state, is taking utmost care in verifying the authenticity of each and every name in the electoral rolls.

Since the process of the summary revision of the electoral rolls and electoral photo-identity card are scheduled to be complete by January, the 19 observers will be reviewing the work done between January 10 and 17.