The West Bengal chief electoral officer (CEO) has issued strict instructions to the micro observers deputed across the state to oversee the second stage of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, warning them of disciplinary action if they are found negligent in their duties.
The Election Commission of India has deployed around 4,000 micro observers in the state to scrutinise electoral roll entries until the final rolls are published. The micro observers have been drawn from different central government offices and nationalised banks.
“In many cases, micro observers are reportedly not obeying their duties, which is important for a flawless final electoral roll. Their duty is to scrutinise the whole hearing process and identify manual mistakes,” a senior official from the West Bengal CEO’s office said.
“The Electoral Roll Micro Observers are under deemed deputation, discipline and control of the CEO during the period of their engagement. Team from ECl has been visiting the hearing venues across the state, and it has been found that the Micro Observers are not performing the above-mentioned duties, even the signatures of the electors visiting the hearing premises are not being properly verified by the Micro Observers deployed in the venues,” a letter by the CEO stated.
It added, “Micro Observer should take their assigned works very seriously and in case of dereliction of duties, disciplinary proceedings will follow.”
What does a micro observer do?
• Check the entries in the enumeration forms digitised by the booth-level officers (BLOs)
• Compare the electoral roll with death and birth registers/data, etc.
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• Check documents submitted by electors to whom notices have been issued by the electoral registration officer (ERO) and assistant electoral registration officer (AERO)
• Check documents submitted by electors with their claims and objections
• Observe hearing proceedings, have a group photograph with the elector and ERO/AERO and micro observer clicked with faces clearly visible and upload at the time of hearing; jointly after the signature and thumb impression of the elector along with AERO/ERO
• Find out any deviations/discrepancies in preparation/revision of electoral roll
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• Assist the electoral roll observers/special electoral roll observers in statistical analysis of various features of the electoral roll
• Any other work given by the CEO/electoral roll observers/special electoral roll observers
• Submit findings to the CEO/electoral roll observers/special electoral roll observers
Each constituency has one ERO and 10 AEROs. There are 11 tables per constituency for the hearing—a total of 3,234 tables for 294 constituencies. The number increases in constituencies with more hearings.
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