Kolkata, Jan 12 (NationPress) The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, has once again reached out to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, highlighting significant procedural lapses in the current Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process taking place in the state. This marks her fifth correspondence to the CEC since the commencement of the SIR exercise in Bengal.

In a post on her official Facebook page, CM Banerjee indicated that these procedural oversights are causing undue distress to citizens and leading to their wrongful disenfranchisement.

"Continuing from my previous communications, I feel compelled to bring your attention to two serious procedural issues observed during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. These lapses are resulting in unnecessary harassment of citizens, wrongful deletions of eligible voters, and their subsequent disenfranchisement," CM Banerjee noted in her letter.

Detailing the observed procedural shortcomings, the Chief Minister stated, "It has been observed that during hearings associated with the SIR, voters are providing necessary documentation to support their eligibility. However, in several instances, no formal acknowledgment or receipt is given for the submitted documents.

"As a result, during the verification or hearing phase, these documents are reported as 'missing' or 'not found on record,' leading to the removal of voters' names from the electoral rolls.

"This method is fundamentally flawed and unacceptable. The failure to issue acknowledgment for document submissions deprives voters of proof and leaves them vulnerable to internal record-keeping issues."

Addressing another significant flaw in the SIR process, CM Banerjee pointed out, "Due to the lack of a digitized database from the previous SIR, the manual voter lists from 2002, including those published in local languages, were scanned and converted to English using AI tools for digitization. This transliteration process has led to serious inaccuracies in voter details such as name, age, gender, relationships, and guardian names. These inaccuracies have resulted in extensive data mismatches, causing many legitimate voters to be labeled as 'logical discrepancies.'"

Banerjee also highlighted that over the past 23 years, numerous voters have submitted Form-8 along with valid government documents, and after appropriate quasi-judicial hearings by EROs/AEROs, their details were duly corrected and integrated into the current Electoral Roll-2025.

"The Commission is now ignoring its own established processes that have been followed consistently for over two decades, forcing voters to re-validate their identity and eligibility.

"Such an approach—disregarding its own protocols that have been in place for more than twenty years—is arbitrary, illogical, and contrary to the principles of the Constitution of India," she emphasized.

It is noteworthy that CM Banerjee has previously sent four letters to the CEC, yet none have elicited a response from the CEC.