In an effort to resolve the deadlock over nearly 60 lakh voters whose names remain under the “Under Adjudication” category, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to bring in 200 additional judicial officers from neighbouring states to speed up the verification process in West Bengal.
According to commission sources, the officers — 100 each from Odisha and Jharkhand — are expected to arrive in the state within the next two days. The move is aimed at accelerating the scrutiny of voter records, particularly in eight districts of South Bengal where the workload is the heaviest.
Administrative sources said that out of the nearly 60 lakh voters currently marked as “Under Adjudication,” only about 6.5 lakh names have been examined so far. Officials clarified that the completion of verification does not automatically ensure inclusion in the final electoral roll. Only those whose documents and claims are found valid during the scrutiny will be added to the main voter list.
At present, around 505 judicial officers are engaged in the verification process. However, given the scale of the exercise, the Commission decided to deploy additional officers to help clear the backlog before the announcement of the polling schedule.
The officers arriving from other states will be deployed in eight districts — North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, East Burdwan, West Burdwan, Howrah, Hooghly, Birbhum and Nadia.
Officials said the process is being carried out as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls under the supervision of the Supreme Court of India. Judicial officers are examining final documents submitted by voters and will dispose of the cases only after completing the scrutiny.
So far, 60,06,675 names have been placed under the adjudication stage. These names are part of the 7,04,59,284 entries included in the provisional voter list released on February 28 whose status is yet to be finalised.
The issue has also triggered political protests, with opposition parties demanding that elections should not be held in the state until the verification of these voters is completed.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is about to stage a protest against the SIR process on Friday.
Also read: C. V. Ananda Bose resigns as WB Governor ahead of Assembly polls
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