EC flags technical issue in 2002 rolls, halts hearings for 'unmapped' electors in Bengal
Kolkata (PTI): The EC has issued fresh instructions to district election officials in West Bengal, directing that voters marked as "unmapped" in the BLO app due to technical issues linked to the digitisation of the 2002 electoral rolls during the ongoing SIR exercise should not be called for hearings, even if such notices have been auto-generated by the system.
The directive, issued by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, on Saturday stated that the issue has arisen due to incomplete conversion of the PDF version of the 2002 electoral rolls, the last Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducted in the state, into CSV format, leading to linkage failures in the booth-level officer (BLO) app for a number of electors.
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It said that despite being marked as "unmapped" in the system, many such electors have valid self or progeny linkage with the hard copy of the 2002 electoral rolls, duly authenticated by district election officers (DEOs) and published on the CEO's website.
The CEO's office said that hearing notices generated automatically in such cases need not be served and should be retained at the level of the electoral registration officer (ERO) or assistant electoral registration officer (AERO).
As per the instructions, extracts of the 2002 electoral rolls may be forwarded to the DEO concerned for verification in accordance with the guidelines of the Election Commission. Upon verification, EROs or AEROs may take an appropriate decision and upload the necessary documents for the disposal of the cases.
The directive also allows BLOs to be deputed for field verification, including taking photographs of the electors concerned for uploading in the system.
"This directive might be for the time being. If it is felt that hearings are at all required in some cases, that will be done only after a proper verification," an official told PTI.
However, it clarified that in cases where discrepancies are detected at a later stage, either during scrutiny of the hard copy of the 2002 electoral rolls or upon receipt of complaints, the electors concerned may be called for hearings after due serving of notices.
The instructions have been circulated to all DEOs as part of the ongoing SIR exercise in West Bengal to ensure accuracy of electoral rolls while addressing technical limitations in legacy data integration.
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Rupee hits all-time low for second time in a week
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee depreciated 31 paise to settle at 91.99 against the US dollar on Wednesday, touching the lowest closing level for the second time in less than a week, amid increased month-end demand for the greenback.
Forex traders said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe offered quiet reassurance. However, increased month-end demand for the American currency as well as the ongoing geopolitical tensions dented investors' sentiments.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 91.60 and touched an early high of 91.50, but pared all the gains to touch an intra-day low of 91.99 against the greenback.
The domestic unit settled 31 paise down, revisiting its lowest-ever closing level of 91.99 against the greenback. The Indian currency previously ended at this level on January 23 when it also hit its all-time intraday low of 92 against the US dollar.
On Tuesday, the rupee rebounded from its all-time low levels and gained 22 paise to close at 91.68 against the US dollar.
Analysts said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe bolstered investor sentiment.
India and the European Union on Tuesday announced the conclusion of negotiations for the free trade agreement (FTA), under which a number of domestic sectors such as apparel, chemicals and footwear will get duty-free entry into the 27-nation bloc, while the EU will get access to the Indian market at concessional duty for cars and wines, an official said.
The deal has been dubbed the "mother of all deals" as it will create a market of about 2 billion people.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.07 per cent lower at 96.14.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.43 per cent lower at USD 67.28 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex jumped 487.20 points to settle at 82,344.68, while Nifty surged 167.35 points to 25,342.75.
Foreign Institutional Investors turned net buyers and purchased equities worth Rs 480.26 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
