EC serves SIR notice to Amartya Sen for Jan 16 hearing, TMC calls it 'shameful farce'
Kolkata (PTI): The Election Commission on Wednesday served a notice to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in connection with the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in West Bengal, seeking a hearing of the 92-year-old economist on January 16 at his residence, an official said.
The Trinamool Congress responded sharply to the development and called it a “shameful farce”.
With Sen currently stationed abroad, the notice was served to a member of his family in Santiniketan, Bolpur, where the ancestral residence of the economist is located, officials said.
Clearing the air on whether multiple hearing notices have been served to Sen, a senior official at the office of West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said, “There is only one notice served to Prof Sen. There were some logical discrepancies found in the enumeration form submitted by him, and for this reason, he has been asked to appear for a hearing. Since he is above 85 years, the BLO concerned will be visiting him at his residence for the hearing as per the EC rules.”
Sen's cousin acknowledged the receipt of the notice and said he would inform the academic about the development.
The notice, the official said, was generated during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process on grounds of "logical discrepancy" after the age difference between Sen and his mother, as recorded in the enumeration form, was found to be less than 15 years.
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The development has already created a political dust-up after Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee alleged on Tuesday that serving SIR notices to eminent personalities like Sen was tantamount to "insulting the people of Bengal”, a claim that both the BJP and the Election Commission rejected.
The TMC, however, continued to hit out at the EC and the BJP for what it called “their Bangla-Birodhi (anti-Bengal) agenda of division and degradation".
“A Nobel laureate should be above any suspicion, right? But what if he's a Bengali? Then he'll be slapped with hearing notices as if he were some common criminal,” the party posted on X following the handing over of the notice to Sen.
“Amartya Sen, whose groundbreaking works form the bedrock of modern economics, who has brought unparalleled glory to Bengal and the entire nation, and whose ideas are studied in universities across the world, has been issued a SIR hearing notice,” the party said.
The TMC alleged that the SIR is a “cynical, shameful farce” of an exercise conducted at the "behest of the BJP and the EC".
“They will drag our icons through the mud, tarnish our pride, and stoop to any low if it serves their Bangla-Birodhi (anti-Bengal) agenda of division and degradation,” the party wrote on its social media handle.
Earlier, the poll body clarified that minor technical discrepancies, including spelling errors in voters’ names, can be corrected administratively by BLOs and do not affect a voter’s eligibility or rights.
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Nine dead as fire breaks out in residential building in east Delhi
New Delhi (PTI): A fire broke out in a residential building in east Delhi's Vivek Vihar early Sunday, leaving nine people belonging to two families dead, including a toddler, officials said.
The incident was reported around 3.48 am at a four-storey building in Vivek Vihar Phase-I, following which police, fire and disaster management teams rushed to the spot.
According to the police, the blaze engulfed flats on the second, third and fourth floors of the building, prompting a large-scale rescue operation.The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
The Delhi Fire Service (DFS) said nine charred bodies were recovered from different floors.
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"One body was recovered from the first floor, five from the second floor and three from the staircase which was found locked," the DFS officer said.
Those found dead on the second floor have been identified as Arvind Jain (60), his wife Anita Jain (58), son Nishant Jain (35), daughter-in-law Anchal Jain (33) and grandchild Akash Jain.
On the third floor, three members of a family were found dead. They were identified as Nitin Jain (50), wife Shailey Jain (48) and son Samyak Jain (25).
On the first floor a woman identified as Shikha Jain (45) was found dead while her husband Naveen Jain (48) sustained injuries.
A senior police officer said, "Around 10 to 15 people were rescued from the premises during the firefighting operation. Two of them, who sustained minor injuries, were shifted to the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital."
A total of 12 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames, while teams from the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), traffic police and local police assisted in the rescue and evacuation efforts.
Police said the fire was brought under control after several hours. Efforts are underway to determine the cause of the fire, police said.
Further investigation and proceedings are underway.
