AI-driven digitisation errors causing widespread hardship during SIR: Mamata to CEC
Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to CEC Gyanesh Kumar again on Monday, claiming that AI-driven digitisation errors in the 2002 electoral rolls were causing widespread hardship to genuine voters during the SIR exercise in the state.
In her fifth letter to the chief election commissioner (CEC) since the beginning of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Banerjee said serious errors occurred in electors' particulars during the digitisation of the 2002 voters' list using AI tools, leading to large-scale data mismatches and wrongful categorisation of genuine voters as having "logical discrepancies".
Accusing the EC of disregarding its own statutory processes followed over the last two decades, she said electors were being compelled to re-establish identity despite earlier corrections made after "quasi-judicial hearings".
"Such an approach, disowning its own actions and mechanisms spanning more than two decades, is arbitrary, illogical and contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India," she alleged.
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Banerjee further claimed that no proper acknowledgement was being issued for documents submitted during SIR, claiming that the procedure was "fundamentally flawed".
She said the SIR hearing process had become "largely mechanical, driven purely by technical data", and was "completely devoid of the application of mind, sensitivity and human touch", claiming that it undermined "the bedrock of our democracy and constitutional framework".
Highlighting the human cost, she wrote that the exercise, which should have been constructive, "has already seen 77 deaths with 4 attempts to suicide and 17 persons falling sick and necessitating hospitalisation," attributing it to "fear, intimidation and disproportionate workload due to unplanned exercise undertaken by ECI."
Mamata also condemned the harassment of eminent citizens, noting that Nobel Laureate Prof Amartya Sen, poet Joy Goswami, actor and MP Deepak Adhikari, international cricketer Mohammed Shami and the Maharaj of Bharat Sevashram Sangha were "subjected to this unplanned, insensitive and inhuman process."
"Does this not amount to sheer audacity on the part of the ECI?" she questioned.
The chief minister further criticised the treatment of female voters, saying, "Women electors who have shifted to their matrimonial homes and changed their surnames after marriage are being questioned and summoned for hearings to prove their identity.
She said, "This not only reflects a complete lack of social sensitivity but also constitutes a grave insult to women and genuine voters. Is this how a constitutional authority treats half of the electorate?"
Banerjee urged the EC to immediately address the issues to "end the harassment and agony of the citizens and the official machinery" and safeguard democratic rights.
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Congress’ downfall will start from Baramati if it doesn’t let Sunetra Pawar win unopposed: Bawankule
Nagpur (PTI): The Congress will have to face consequences if it doesn't allow NCP president and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar to win the Baramati assembly bypoll unopposed, said minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Thursday.
The party’s “downfall” will start from Baramati, he said, stressing that the people of Baramati and Maharashtra wish that she is elected unopposed, said the BJP leader.
The April 23 bye election was necessitated after the tragic death of deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who headed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), in a plane crash in Baramati on January 28. After his death, his wife Sunetra became the party president.
The NCP, BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena are partners in the ruling Mahayuti alliance in the state.
“The Congress will face consequences if it doesn’t let Sunetra win unopposed from Baramati. Its downfall will start from Baramati if it doesn’t withdraw its candidate,” Bawankule told reporters in Nagpur.
Amid efforts to ensure an unopposed contest, the Congress has fielded advocate Akash More for the bypoll.
The party had said that it would withdraw from the contest only if an FIR were registered in Ajit Pawar’s death in the Baramati plane crash.
Replying to another question, Bawankule said the BJP’s performance will be more robust in Assam and Kerala elections compared to the last assembly polls in these states. Assembly polls are being held in a single phase in Assam, Kerala and Puducherry on Thursday.
“These elections will once again show Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership commanding support among the people,” he said.
