Election Commission moves to 'clean up' Bengal SIR exercise data entry process 

Kolkata, Dec 4 (IANS) Amid a series of complaints from the principal opposition parties in West Bengal that the main loopholes in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state lie in the data entry system, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed the special observers to review the revision work and make the process of data entry absolutely transparent. 

Accordingly, the special observers will conduct background checks on the data entry operators involved in the exercise and will suggest to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in the state that any such operator be removed or replaced as and when required.

The opposition leaders, especially the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, have been extremely vocal in claiming that a large section of the data entry operators engaged in the revision exercise are actually attached to the poll strategist Prashant Kishor-founded Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), which has been strategising poll tactics for the Trinamool Congress since the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls.

"The commission has taken these allegations regarding loopholes in the data entry system quite seriously, and it has now decided to focus on making the system absolutely transparent by engaging the specially appointed observers in that process," said an insider from the CEO's office.

Already, a tiff between the commission and the West Bengal government has broken out over the ECI’s proposal for hiring 1,000 data entry operators and 50 software developers for a period of one year amid the ongoing SIR exercise in West Bengal.

On November 24, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, objecting to the commission's request for a proposal to hire 1,000 data entry operators and 50 software developers in West Bengal for a period of one year.

BJP's Information Technology Cell chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, reacted strongly to the Chief Minister’s letter on the same day and claimed it was astonishing that the Chief Minister was objecting to such appointments by the commission at a juncture when it was widely known, according to him, that one of Trinamool Congress' contracted agencies had penetrated multiple state government bodies, sits in official meetings, and routinely meddles in administrative decisions.

--IANS

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