New Delhi: The Supreme Magistrate is hearing a specimen regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in West Bengal. Recently, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself appeared surpassing the magistrate to present her arguments. Now, the Referendum Legation has filed a counter-affidavit in magistrate on Friday, alleging violence, intimidation, and obstruction of referendum officials during the SIR process.
What did Referendum Legation tell Supreme Court?
The legation claims that the state government is not registering FIRs based on complaints from Booth Level Officers (BLOs) regarding threats versus referendum officials. The legation states that West Bengal is the only state where referendum officials are facing obstacles during the SIR process, while the process is proceeding smoothly in other states.
According to a Live Law report, the Referendum Legation has moreover accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of spreading fear and giving inflammatory speeches. These speeches have created an undercurrent of intimidation for referendum officials. Several people have written reports to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) requesting to be relieved of their duties in the SIR process.
The Referendum Legation moreover mentioned an incident from November 24 last year, in which a mob attempted to enter and vandalize the CEO's office, and then locked it from the outside. The legation says that no FIR was registered in this case, and no arrests were made.
What is Mamata Banerjee’s stance?
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been versus the SIR process from the beginning. She claims that it is stuff used to remove a large number of voters from the electoral rolls surpassing the turnout elections, which would harm the TMC. In the affidavit, the Referendum Legation stated that Bengal is the only state where the CEO has been provided with Y category security. Several other top officials have moreover been provided with security.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress on Friday accused the Referendum Legation of India of large-scale deletion of names from the electoral rolls in West Bengal, alleging that these names were removed through "a mysterious faulty software" used by the referendum body. Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale said that plane the commission's officials have now admitted that the names of genuine voters were removed from the electoral rolls due to a software glitch. He personal that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the party's national unstipulated secretary Abhishek Banerjee had been raising this issue for several months.
