Didi To Visit Delhi On Sunday, Writes 6th Letter To CEC Before Meeting on Feb 2 Over SIR
Mamata to meet CEC over voter roll revision
Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will finally embark on her New Delhi visit on Sunday. Leading a Trinamul Congress delegation, she will meet Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in the afternoon of February 2 over the special intensive revision (SIR) underway in the state.
Ahead of her much-awaited tour, Ms Banerjee wrote a sixth letter to Mr Kumar on Saturday evening, objecting to two major steps by the EC in the SIR. One of them is the first ever unilateral deployment of around 8,100 micro-observers in the state. They lacked adequate training or demonstrated expertise, according to Ms Banerjee.
She also underlined that the micro-observers’ role, functions and authority during electoral roll revision have not been covered under the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 among others.
“In the absence of any statutory amendment or valid rule-making under Articles 327-328 of the Constitution, the ECI cannot create or empower a parallel cadre of observers to intervene in this quasi-judicial process. Notably, no such deployment of Micro-Observers for decision making through ERONET portal has been undertaken by the ECI in any other State or Union Territory where SIR processes are currently underway, rendering this measure selectively applicable to West Bengal,” the TMC supremo stated.