West Bengal will call nearly 32 lakh unmapped voters for the first phase of hearings under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Election officials said the hearings will start on December 27 across the state.
These voters could not link their names with family members listed in the 2002 electoral rolls. During the enumeration process, officials identified 31,68,424 such voters. Authorities have already begun issuing notices to around 10 lakh voters. Notices to the remaining 22 lakh voters will be sent from Tuesday.
Officials said hearings will take place at district magistrate offices, sub-divisional offices, government departments, and selected schools and colleges. Each hearing will follow a structured process to verify voter details.
Every session will be monitored by a micro-observer to ensure transparency. The state will train nearly 4,000 micro-observers in two phases on December 24 in Kolkata. All observers are state government officials.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee raised concerns over the process. She alleged that many micro-observers lack knowledge of the Bengali language, which could affect hearings.
In the meantime, a delegation from the Election Commission will visit the state. Senior officials will review the progress of the SIR hearings. They will also attend the micro-observer training programme.
Cases involving logical discrepancies will be examined in the next phase.
