Mamata writes to CEC, urges him to halt 'chaotic, coercive' SIR of voter rolls
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Kolkata (PTI): Upping the ante on SIR, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote a strongly worded letter to CEC Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday, asking him to immediately halt the exercise that she claimed was "chaotic, coercive and dangerous".
Banerjee mentioned that she has "time and again" raised concerns over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the state and is now "compelled to write" to the chief election commissioner because the situation has reached a "deeply alarming stage".
She alleged that the SIR in Bengal is being carried out in an “unplanned, dangerous” manner that has “crippled the process from day one”.
The chief minister accused the Election Commission of thrusting the SIR upon officials and citizens "without basic preparedness, adequate planning or clear communication", claiming that critical gaps in training, confusion over mandatory documents and the "near-impossibility" of BLOs meeting voters during working hours had rendered the entire exercise “structurally unsound”.
She urged the CEC to “intervene decisively” to halt the ongoing exercise, stop "coercive" measures, provide proper training and support, and “thoroughly reassess” the present methodology and timelines.
“If this path is not corrected without delay, the consequences for the system, the officials and the citizens will be irreversible,” she wrote, calling this a moment that demands “responsibility, humanity and decisive corrective action”.
The three-page letter, among her strongest yet, painted a grim portrait of booth-level officers stretched “far beyond human limits”.
“They are expected to manage their principal duties, many being teachers and frontline workers, while simultaneously conducting door-to-door surveys and handling complex e-submissions,” she wrote, adding that most were struggling with online forms due to lack of training, server failures and repeated data mismatches.
The consequence, she warned, is a "looming breakdown".
“At this pace, it is almost certain that by December 4, voter data across multiple constituencies cannot be uploaded with required accuracy," Banerjee said.
Under extreme pressure and “fear of punitive action”, many BLOs were being pushed into filing incorrect or incomplete entries, risking disenfranchisement of genuine voters and “eroding the integrity of the electoral roll”.
Banerjee reserved some of her sharpest criticism for what she described as the Election Commission’s “indefensible” response, not support, but “intimidation”.
She alleged that the Office of the CEO, West Bengal, was issuing show-cause notices “without justification”, threatening already strained BLOs with disciplinary action instead of acknowledging “the reality on the ground”.
Compounding the strain, Banerjee wrote, was the timing of the SIR. Bengal is at the peak of paddy harvest and in the middle of Rabi sowing, a strictly time-bound window, especially for potato cultivation, she said.
"Millions of farmers and labourers are engaged in essential agricultural work and cannot be expected to abandon the fields to participate in SIR enumeration,” she said.
But it was the human cost that Banerjee described as “now unbearable”.
She cited the suicide of an anganwadi worker serving as a BLO in Jalpaiguri district's Mal area, reportedly under “crushing SIR-related pressure”, adding that “several others have lost their lives since this process began”.
A voter roll revision that earlier took three years, she said, had been “forcibly compressed into three months”, creating “inhuman working conditions” and a climate of “fear and uncertainty”.
The chief minister warned that continuing with the “unplanned, coercive drive” would not only endanger more lives but also “jeopardise the legitimacy of the electoral revision itself”.
The Election Commission is yet to respond to the chief minister’s latest salvo, even as the political temperature around the SIR, once a routine administrative exercise, continues to climb amid charges of overreach, coercion and chaos.
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Indian visa application centre suspended indefinitely in Bangladesh's Chattogram
Dhaka (PTI): India on Sunday suspended visa operations at its mission in Bangladeshi port city of Chattogram until further notice, according to media reports.
The move comes in the wake of a fresh wave of unrest witnessed in the country following the death of prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi.
His death triggered attacks and vandalism across Bangladesh, including stone-hurling at the Assistant Indian High Commissioner's residence in Chattogram on Thursday.
Hadi, a prominent leader of the student-led protests last year that led to the ouster of the prime minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, was a candidate for the scheduled February 12 general elections.
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He was shot in the head on December 12 by masked gunmen at an election campaign in central Dhaka’s Bijoynagar area and died while undergoing treatment in Singapore on December 18.
“Due to the recent security incident at Assistant High Commission of India (AHCI) Chittagong, Indian visa operations at IVAC Chittagong (Chattogram) will remain suspended from 21/12/2025 until further notice,” the Indian Visa Application Centre (IVAC) said in a brief statement.
The announcement for reopening the visa centre will be made after reviewing the situation, the statement added. The decision came into effect on Sunday.
There are five IVAC facilities across Bangladesh at Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Chattogram and Sylhet. An IVAC official told PTI that the other four offices have remained operational as of Sunday.
India on Thursday resumed operations at its visa application centre in Dhaka, a day after closing it over escalated security concerns, but closed for a brief period two other identical facilities in Rajshahi and Khulna as anti-India protestors tried to march towards the Indian missions there.
On Saturday, security was strengthened at the Indian Assistant High Commission office and the visa application centre in Bangladesh's Sylhet city.
The enhanced security measures were put in place to ensure that “no third party can exploit the situation,” Additional Deputy Commissioner (Media) of the Sylhet Metropolitan Police Saiful Islam was quoted as saying by The Dhaka Tribune newspaper on Saturday.
Hadi, 32, was laid to rest on Saturday amid extra-tight security beside the grave of National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam near the Dhaka University mosque.
Tens of thousands of people attended the funeral prayers, and ahead of the ritual, chanted anti-India slogans like “Delhi or Dhaka - Dhaka, Dhaka” and “brother Hadi’s blood will not be allowed to go in vain.”
Earlier on December 17, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) summoned Bangladesh envoy Riaz Hamidullah and conveyed its strong concern over certain extremist elements announcing plans to create a security situation around the Indian mission in Dhaka.
“We expect the interim government to ensure the safety of Missions and Posts in Bangladesh in keeping with its diplomatic obligations,” it said.
The envoy was apprised of India's strong concerns about the deteriorating security environment in Bangladesh, it added.
