EC orders FIRs against five poll officials over roll lapses in Bengal

The Election Commission directed the registration of FIRs against five poll officials for alleged irregularities in the distribution and collection of enumeration forms during the ongoing special revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, an official said on Saturday.

These officials are two Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), two Assistant Registration Officers (AROs) and a data entry operator, he said.

"We have identified five state government employees, two from Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district and three from Moyna in Purba Medinipur, against whom FIRs will be filed for alleged procedural lapses in the revision exercise," he said.

"The district magistrates have been asked to lodge cases and submit reports promptly," he added.

Meanwhile, the EC has scaled down the logical discrepancy cases from over 13,600,000 to nearly 9,449,000 after a thorough evaluation of the list, an official said.

In the draft rolls, published on December 16, around 13,600,000 entries were flagged for "logical discrepancies".

"Logical discrepancies" flagged include mismatches in spelling of names with earlier data, mismatches of fathers' names, voters recorded with more than six children, implausible age differences with parents or grandparents, and people above 45 wrongly shown as "new voters".

On the other hand, Special Roll Observer Subrata Gupta will visit Bankura, Purulia, Paschim Medinipur and Paschim Bardhaman next week to review the revision work on the ground, an official said.