New Delhi: Persevering with her assault on the Election Fee of India (ECI), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday wrote a recent letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, elevating considerations over the ECI’s proposal to arrange polling stations inside personal housing complexes.
The proposal is “extremely problematic,” the letter says, arguing that “to make sure accessibility and neutrality, polling stations have all the time been, and should proceed to be, positioned inside governmental or semi-governmental establishments, ideally inside a two-kilometre radius.”
She identified that non-public buildings are often prevented as a result of they “undermine fairness, violate established norms, and create discriminatory distinctions between privileged residents and most people, the haves and have-nots.”
“Why on earth is such a transfer being thought of? Once more, is that this being carried out below stress from political events to advance partisan pursuits? Why? Why? Why?” she went on to ask, arguing that the impression of such a call would have a severe impression on the equity of the electoral course of.
One other subject highlighted by the letter pertains to the controversial Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) train launched by the ECI within the state.
Banerjee has doubts concerning the request for proposals submitted by the West Bengal CEO to rent 1,000 knowledge entry operators and 50 software program builders for a 12 months. She alleged that the CEO had directed the district election officers to not interact contract knowledge entry operators or Bangla Sahyata Kendra employees in SIR-related or different election-related knowledge work.
This raises severe considerations and questions the rationale behind outsourcing the work when the district board already has a big variety of certified professionals, she stated.
“Historically, discipline places of work have all the time employed contractual knowledge entry personnel as per their necessities. The place there may be an pressing want, District Election Officers (DEOs) are empowered to make such hires themselves. So why is the CEO’s workplace taking on this function on behalf of discipline places of work?” The letter additional asks, “Is that this train being undertaken on the behest of political events serving vested pursuits?”
Banerjee highlighted these two developments and requested Kumar to contemplate these points with “utmost seriousness, equity and transparency”.
“It’s important that the fee’s dignity, neutrality and credibility stay above reproach and can’t be compromised below any circumstances,” she wrote.
“It is chaotic and harmful.”
The ECI handed an order on October 27 directing SIR workouts in 9 states and three union territories. Banerjee has attacked the train because it started on November 4, highlighting the elevated workload and strict schedule imposed on Sales space Stage Officers (BLOs), amongst others.
In a publish on X final week, Banerjee claimed that Shanti Muni Ekka, a tribal girl and anganwadi employee, “took her personal life below insufferable stress because of ongoing SIR work.”
The truth is, Banerjee claimed that 28 individuals have misplaced their lives for the reason that SIR train started, “some because of worry and nervousness, others because of stress and overload,” she wrote in a publish on Wednesday.
“Such valuable lives are being misplaced because of the unplanned and relentless workload imposed by the so-called Election Fee of India. A course of that used to take three years is now being compelled into two months earlier than elections to curry political leaders, placing inhuman stress on the BLO,” Banerjee added, urging the ECI to halt the marketing campaign “earlier than extra lives are misplaced.”
In a separate letter to Kumar final week, Banerjee argued that the way during which the SIR train is being “compelled upon officers and the general public is just not solely haphazard and chaotic, but in addition harmful.”
He highlighted the heavy workload of the BLO concerned within the course of and alleged that as an alternative of offering help, extending deadlines or addressing deficiencies within the marketing campaign, the West Bengal Chief Election Officer’s Workplace had issued a show-cause discover to the BLO, reportedly citing flaws within the digitization course of.
He referred to as on the CEC to halt the train, “stop coercive measures, present applicable coaching and assist, and totally reassess the present methodology and schedule.”
(Edited by Varnika Dhawan)
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