Kolkata, Feb 28 (IANS) As the final voters’ list in West Bengal, prepared under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, was published on Saturday, official statistics showed that the maximum number of “under adjudication” cases are concentrated in three Bangladesh-bordering districts — Murshidabad, Malda and North 24 Parganas. Of these, Murshidabad and Malda are minority-dominated districts.
The “under adjudication” category comprises cases of “logical discrepancy” that have been referred for judicial scrutiny by officers appointed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for this purpose.
According to data available from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, out of around 60 lakh voters’ documents referred for judicial adjudication, the highest number is from Murshidabad district. A total of 11,01,145 cases from Murshidabad have been referred, accounting for roughly 18.35 per cent of the total cases under judicial adjudication.
In Malda district, another minority-dominated district sharing a border with Bangladesh, 8,28,127 cases have been referred for judicial adjudication. This constitutes approximately 13.80 per cent of the total cases under adjudication.
In North 24 Parganas district, which also shares a border with Bangladesh, 5,91,252 cases have been referred for judicial adjudication, accounting for around 9.85 per cent of the total cases.
Taken together, these three districts account for nearly 42 per cent of the total “under adjudication” cases in the state.
The cases under adjudication are currently being examined by over 500 judicial officers appointed by the ECI in compliance with directions of the Supreme Court. Depending on the progress of the adjudication process, a supplementary list will be published in due course. Only after completion of this exercise will the final status of the electoral rolls become clear.
The final voters’ list published on Saturday showed that 61,78,245 names have been deleted so far under the SIR process.
The number of deletions is expected to rise further, as identity documents of around 60 lakh voters remain under judicial adjudication.
–IANS
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