Kolkata: Bengal CEO’s office has forwarded a letter from Election Commission to all district election officers (DEOs), who are also district magistrates, asking them to organise special drives to enrol “left-out” and first-time voters.The DEOs were informed that for a state like Bengal where SIR has ended, “a special drive shall be undertaken by the chief electoral officer, district election officers and EROs for the enrolment of left-out and young/first-time eligible electors under the process of continuous updation.”A DEO said the old condition that Form 6 applicants must map their parents or grandparents to a previous SIR has been dropped. “A declaration form attached with Form 6 will be used during SIR phase only. For non-SIR period, the forms applicable as per the registration of Electors Rules 1960 will be used,” EC’s letter mentions.“We got to know from media that an enrolment drive will start. We were waiting for instructions from the EC. On Wednesday, the instruction came from the CEO’s office,” said a DEO.The DEOs will now have to plan the enrolment camps in their own electoral districts. The KMC area has two electoral districts — Kolkata North and South — and parts of South 24 Parganas electoral district.
