Bengal Voter Mapping Process Sees Little Progress, 7 Districts Finish Task

The West Bengal district election officers (DEOs) have mapped electors only in seven of the 24 districts, despite being instructed to complete the process by Tuesday, Deputy Election Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti said on Wednesday.

Among the seven states, data from only three of them have been uploaded on the Election Commission's website, Bharti said. 

Assembly elections in West Bengal are scheduled to be held next year. 

With little progress in the voter mapping process, the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal has appointed an additional officer of CEO rank to coordinate with district magistrates to expedite the pending work. To accelerate the process, the CEO's office is also scheduled to hold a video conference with all district officials on Wednesday. 

As a result, a meeting that was scheduled to be held with nodal officers during the day has been deferred and is likely to take place at the end of the month, sources said, even as officials are unsure of completing the mapping exercise by then. 

Voter mapping is a process of verifying and mapping existing voter entries to their exact geographical location, in a bid to eliminate dead voters, duplication and voters who have shifted out of a constituency. This is a crucial exercise ahead of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) rollout. Voters whose names aren't on the list will have to submit documents to prove their identity and address.  

The seven districts that have completed the mapping process are Jhargram (51.36%), Paschim Medinipur (62.94%), Kalimpong (65.27%), Alipurduar (53.73%), Purulia (61.29%), Kolkata North (55.35%) and Malda (54.49%). 

Among these, data from Jhargram, Paschim Medinipur, and Alipurduar have been uploaded on the Election Commission's website.

The pace of the exercise in districts adjoining Kolkata-North and South 24 Parganas has been particularly slow. Estimates suggest mapping in North 24 Parganas is about 45-48% complete, while in South 24 Parganas, around 58% of the work has been done. 

Officials believe that rapid urbanisation and population growth in the suburbs over the past 23 years have contributed to the delay. 

A significant number of people have relocated from Kolkata to these districts, along with a notable influx from other states, the sources said. In 2002, the number of voters in these districts was relatively low, making it difficult to map current data based on old records.

Little progress was also observed in some parts of the Kolkata Metropolitan Area, particularly in Central and North Kolkata. Officials suspect that illegal immigration may be a factor in Malda and both 24 Parganas districts.

In Jhargram, during 2002, political fights over the distribution of ration cards to the Sabar tribe and other tribal communities led to several people being left out of the voter registration process. As a result, Jhargram has one of the lowest mapping completion rates.

According to Election Commission sources, timely implementation of the commission's directives has now become a significant challenge for the state CEO's office.