As the digitisation of enumeration forms nears completion in West Bengal’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed the state’s electoral officers to focus on minute ‘progeny’ mapping due to serious flaws detected regarding parents’ identities in the current voters’ list (as of October 27).
Progeny mapping is a verification process used to determine if the parents' names of a voter in the current list match the names recorded in the 2002 voters' list, the last time the SIR was conducted in the state.
Sources within the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, indicated that the ECI is emphasising this minute mapping following instances where the names of the parents of some voters in the current list differed from those in the 2002 list. These discrepancies surfaced during the ongoing exercise of enumeration form digitisation, which includes both “self” and “progeny” mapping aspects.
The CEO’s office insider also revealed that the ECI has decided to conduct a random survey of the duly filled enumeration forms collected by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in every booth in the state. Under this survey, a specific number of forms will be chosen randomly in a booth or a part thereof to detect any major data flaws. This survey will be conducted under the supervision of specially appointed observers reviewing the revision exercise.
The ECI has also reminded officials that the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) will hold greater responsibility than the BLOs for the effective execution of the mapping exercise.
The ECI has issued fresh instructions regarding the preparation of a separate list of deceased voters. The central election body directed officers to re-check data on those already identified as deceased voters by cross-referencing the digitised enumeration forms with the 2002 list.
The ECI specified three mandatory sources for the re-verification of deceased voter data: Records of deaths registered with municipal corporations, municipalities, and panchayats.
Death records available with insurance companies and banks.
The list of beneficiaries under different state government social welfare schemes, especially those related to death benefits.
The total number of voters as per the list on October 27 is 7,66,37,529. The SIR exercise began on November 4. The draft voters’ list will be published on December 16, and the final voters’ list is scheduled for publication on February 14.
Also read: ECI extends SIR deadline by a week in 12 states, UTs
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