Kolkata . Voters voting in the West Bengal Assembly elections will not need to download and take a printout of their voter slip before going to the polling booth to cast their vote or depend on local leaders of different political parties for this. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided that this time Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will go door-to-door to distribute voter slips before the elections. This decision has been taken by the Commission after the recommendation of the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal. An insider in the CEO office said, “As per the rules of the electoral process, it is the duty of BLOs to distribute voter slips among voters. However, this practice had stopped in West Bengal elections since 2011. But this time, the Commission wants to reintroduce the practice. This will not only make things easier for voters, but will also make the system of distributing voter lists more transparent.” According to sources, if voter slips are not distributed, then voters will be able to contact the concerned BLO and collect the voter slip directly from them.
Meanwhile, the Commission has sent a reminder to the office of West Bengal Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty to immediately release the outstanding remuneration to BLOs, BLO Supervisors, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) for their work in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state.
In this matter, the Commission has contacted the Chief Secretary’s office for the third time. The Commission had sent a reminder in this matter in August last year, after which another was sent in December last year.
It is noteworthy that before the West Bengal Assembly elections, there is tension between the state government and the Election Commission. This tension increased after the SIR process. State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made serious allegations against the Election Commission several times. He also moved the Supreme Court against the SIR process, in which case the court also sent a notice to the commission.
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