Tension erupted in Murshidabad's Farakka on Wednesday following allegations of harassment of ordinary citizens and Booth Level Officers in the name of the SIR process. All BLOs jointly staged a sit-in protest at the Farakka Block Development Office premises. During the protest, they submitted their resignation letters to the Electoral Registration Officer.
Alongside the BLOs' sit-in protest, several leaders and workers of the Trinamool Congress also joined the demonstration at the BDO office premises. They blocked the gates in protest and demanded the immediate suspension of the process.
As the protest intensified, the Trinamool Congress MLA of Farakka, Manirul Islam and other party leaders arrived at the spot. Amid the commotion, SIR hearing was suspended. However, as tensions escalated further, an agitated crowd vandalized the hearing camp.
The Election Commission of India has taken note of the incident. The BDO has lodged an FIR and two persons have been arrested. The Chief Election Officer of West Bengal has directed the District Magistrate of Murshidabad to register an FIR as well.
While speaking to the media, Manirul Islam said, "If your name is Ram, you are okay, if your name is Raheem, you are asked to present documents of your 14 generations. We will not accept this SIR. We will not allow SIR."
The Election Commission has provided a breakup of the 91.46 lakh "logical discrepancy" cases identified in the course of "progeny-mapping" during the ongoing voter roll revision. They are in addition to 58.20 lakhs of "excluded voters" and 30 lakhs of "unmapped" voters, that is, voters unable to establish any link with the 2002 voters list either through "self-mapping" or through "progeny-mapping".
Voters identified as "logical discrepancy" cases are those in whose records unusual family-tree data have been detected during progeny mapping.
