New Delhi: Persevering with her assault on the Election Fee of India (ECI), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote a contemporary letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar Monday, elevating issues over ECI’s proposal to arrange polling stations inside personal residential complexes.

Calling this proposal “deeply problematic”, the letter asserts, “Polling stations have at all times been— and should stay—positioned in authorities or semi-government establishments, ideally inside a 2 km radius, to make sure accessibility and neutrality.”

“Why is such a transfer being contemplated in any respect? Once more, is that this being finished underneath stress from a political celebration to advance their partisan pursuits? Why? Why? Why?” she goes on to ask, asserting that the implications of such a call would have a extreme influence on the equity of the electoral course of.

One other situation that the letter highlights is expounded to the contentious Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) train initiated by the ECI within the State.

Banerjee questions the request for proposal floated by the CEO, West Bengal for hiring 1,000 information entry operators and 50 software program builders for one yr. She asserts that the CEO directed the district election officers to not have interaction contractual information entry operators and Bangla Sahyata Kendra employees for SIR-related or different election-related information work.

This, she says, raises severe issues, questioning the explanations behind outsourcing the work regardless of district officers already having a considerable variety of competent professionals.

“Historically, area places of work have at all times employed their very own contractual information entry personnel as per requirement. If there’s an pressing want, District Election Officers (DEOs) are totally empowered to undertake such hiring themselves. Why, then, is the CEO’s workplace assuming this function on behalf of area places of work?” the letter asks, including, “Is that this train being undertaken on the behest of a political celebration to serve vested pursuits?”

Highlighting the 2 developments, Banerjee urged Kumar to look at these points with “utmost seriousness, impartiality and transparency”.

“It’s important that the dignity, neutrality and credibility of the Fee stay above reproach and aren’t compromised underneath any circumstances,” she wrote.

‘Chaotic, harmful’

The ECI had handed an order on 27 October, directing the SIR train in 9 States and three Union Territories. Ever because the train started on 4 November, Banerjee has attacked the train, highlighting the elevated workload and strict timelines imposed on the Sales space Stage Officers (BLOs), amongst different issues.

In a submit on X final week, Banerjee had claimed that an anganwadi employee, Shanti Muni Ekka, who’s a tribal girl, “took her personal life underneath the insufferable stress of the continuing SIR work.”

Banerjee, in actual fact, alleged that 28 individuals had misplaced their lives because the SIR train started— “some resulting from worry and uncertainty, others resulting from stress and overload”, she wrote in a submit on X Wednesday.

“Such valuable lives are being misplaced due to the unplanned, relentless workload imposed by the so-called Election Fee of India. A course of that earlier took 3 years is now being compelled into 2 months on the eve of elections to please political masters, placing inhuman stress on BLOs,” Banerjee added, urging the ECI to halt the drive “earlier than extra lives are misplaced”.

In one other letter written to Kumar final week, Banerjee asserted that the way during which the SIR train was being “compelled upon officers and residents is just not solely unplanned and chaotic, but in addition harmful”.

Highlighting the extreme workload on the BLOs concerned within the course of, she asserted that as a substitute of providing help, extending timelines, or addressing flaws within the train, the workplace of the Chief Electoral Officer in West Bengal has issued show-cause notices to the BLOs, reportedly citing lapses in digitisation processes.

She urged the CEC to halt the train, “cease coercive measures, present correct coaching and help, and completely reassess the current methodology and timelines”.

(Edited by Varnika Dhawan)

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