EC's New Directives: Streamlining West Bengal's Electoral Roll Challenges

The Election Commission in West Bengal has ordered district election officials not to call voters marked as 'unmapped' for hearings due to technical issues with the 2002 electoral rolls digitisation. The directive aims to resolve linkage failures in the BLO app caused by incomplete data conversion.

The Election Commission of West Bengal has issued a directive instructing district election officials to address technical glitches affecting the electoral roll digitisation process. Voters labeled as 'unmapped' should not be summoned for hearings, according to the new guidelines, which aim to tackle errors originating from the 2002 rolls conversion.

Issued by the Chief Electoral Officer's office, the directive highlights incomplete data transformation from PDF to CSV format as the root cause of the mismatches in the BLO app. Despite system errors, many voters have verifiable links to the authentic hard copies of the 2002 electoral rolls.

The Commission emphasizes accuracy in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. BLOs may conduct field verifications, and discrepancies might lead to future hearings with due notice. The EC ensures all DEOs have received these updated guidelines to enhance voter roll accuracy.