Around 32 lakh unmapped voters to be called in phase 1 of SIR hearings from Dec 27 in Bengal
Kolkata (PTI): Around 32 lakh unmapped voters will be called in the first phase of hearings under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, officials said.
Hearings for this category, in which voters could not link their names with those of family members in the 2002 electoral rolls, will begin from December 27, he said.
"We have started sending notices to around 10 lakh such voters from today, while the same will be issued to another 22 lakh voters from Tuesday," the official at the office of the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer told PTI.
During the enumeration phase, a total of 31,68,424 unmapped voters were identified across the state, he said.
He said that the proceedings will be conducted at district magistrates' offices, sub-divisional offices, various government departments, as well as in schools and colleges.
Voters with logical discrepancies will be taken up in the next phase, for which guidelines have been sought from the Election Commission, another official said on Monday.
Each hearing will be conducted under the supervision of a micro-observer, he said.
Training for 4,000 micro-observers will be held in two phases on December 24 in Kolkata, he said, noting that all the micro-observers are officials from the state.
Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday alleged that the micro-observers lack knowledge of the local Bengali language.
Meanwhile, a delegation from the Election Commission will visit the state to review the progress of the SIR of the electoral rolls, sources in the office of the state CEO said.
"The commission's Principal Secretary SB Joshi and Deputy Secretary Abhinav Agarwal will arrive in the state to assess the progress of the hearing phase under the SIR process," he said.
The officials will also attend the training programme for micro-observers on December 24, he added.
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Cummins doubtful for T20 World Cup? It's quite grey right now, says Aus head coach
Melbourne (PTI): Australia skipper Pat Cummins' chances of playing at next year's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka are "quite grey at the moment" as he battles a back stress issue that has affected his participation in the ongoing Ashes series against England.
Cummins returned to play the third Ashes Test in Adelaide after missing the opening two matches, picking up six wickets to help Australia clinch the series 3-0.
However, the Australian Test and ODI skipper will take no further part in the series and even his participation at the T20 World Cup is also uncertain. All-rounder Mitchell Marsh is Australia's T20I captain.
"Looking forward to the World Cup, whether he will be there or not, I can't really say. It's quite grey at the moment. We're hopeful," head coach Andrew McDonald was quoted as saying by 'ESPNCricinfo'.
The fast bowler was diagnosed with a lumbar stress reaction during Australia's tour of the West Indies in July. He underwent rehabilitation before being cleared for a carefully managed return in Adelaide.
"He's pulled up fine. He won't play any part in the rest of the series and that was a discussion that we had a long time out around his return," McDonald said.
"We were taking on some risk and people that reported on that would understand the risk associated with that rebuild. We've now won the series and that was the goal.
"So, to position him for further risk and jeopardise him long-term is not something that we want to do and Pat's really comfortable with that," he added.
The T20 World Cup is scheduled to begin on February 7 across India and Sri Lanka with the summit clash set for March 8.
Australia's first match is on February 11 against Ireland at Colombo. Although Cummins captains the Test and ODI teams, all-rounder Mitch Marsh leads Australia in the shortest format.
