Biswabrata Goswami
KRISHNAGAR, 28 DEC: A massive voter verification drive under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) began in Nadia on Saturday, putting thousands of voters under scrutiny and triggering widespread anxiety across the district. On the first day alone, nearly 3,500 voters were summoned for hearings across all 17 Assembly constituencies, as the administration prepares to examine up to 28,000 cases a day till 7 February.
The hearings are being conducted at block development offices, subdivisional offices and other designated government buildings across the district. With summons reaching households in large numbers, apprehension has spread among voters, many of whom fear possible deletion of their names from the electoral rolls if they fail to meet documentary requirements.
Election Commission sources said Nadia has around 2.81 lakh voters whose names did not feature in the 2002 electoral roll or have been categorised as “no mapping” cases. Of these, more than 52,000 voters belong to the Nadia North organisational district, while nearly 2.30 lakh fall under Nadia South. The latter largely corresponds to the Ranaghat Lok Sabha constituency, an area with a significant Matua population, while the Krishnagar North Lok Sabha constituency is known for its sizeable Muslim population, giving the exercise a sensitive political dimension.
District administration officials said that notices have already reached around 50 per cent of the voters marked under the “no mapping” category. Each Assembly constituency has been assigned one Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and ten Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) to conduct the hearings. In total, 17 EROs and 170 AEROs have been deployed across the district. Each official can hear up to 150 cases a day, making it possible to conduct more than 28,000 hearings daily across Nadia, according to administrative estimates.
To ensure transparency, micro observers have been deployed in every Assembly constituency. As per Election Commission guidelines, 15 micro observers have been posted in each constituency, bringing the total to 255 across the district. Their role is to monitor the proceedings and ensure adherence to prescribed norms.
Nadia District Magistrate Aneesh Dasgupta said the administration is fully prepared to carry out the exercise. “All arrangements are in place and the hearings are being conducted strictly as per rules. At present, we are not aware of any problems,” he said.
Despite official assurances, the scale of the hearings and the large number of voters involved have kept anxiety levels high across Nadia. As the SIR process continues over the next few weeks, the district is expected to remain under close administrative and political watch, with the outcome likely to have significant implications for the electoral rolls ahead of upcoming elections.
