Kolkata, Jan 15 || The Election Commission of India (ECI) is concerned regarding the slow rate of verification of identification documents provided by "unmapped" voters who have participated in the current hearing sessions concerning the draft voters' list in West Bengal.
Amid this situation, the Commission has directed the District Magistrates (DMs), who are also the District Electoral Officers (DEOs), to expedite the process of document authentication, considering that the deadline for publication of the final voters list is February 14 this year.
Currently, the hearing of the “unmapped voters”, that is, voters unable to establish links with the voters’ list 2002 either through “self-mapping” or through “progeny-mapping,” is being done.
According to the statistics available from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, of the 32 lakh unmapped voters, hearing has been completed for around 29 lakh voters till Wednesday evening.
However, out of the 29 lakh voters, whose hearing processes have been completed, the supporting identification documents furnished by them at the hearing session have been uploaded in the system for just around 11 lakh voters till the same period.