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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written a second letter to the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar raising serious objections regarding the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in the state highlighting two disturbing developments that she claims could compromise the integrity of the process In her communication sent on Monday she questioned whether these new directives were being implemented at the behest of a particular political party to serve vested interests which has triggered a fresh political row between the Trinamool Congress and the opposition The first issue raised by the Chief Minister involves an order by the Chief Electoral Officer restricting District Election Officers from engaging contractual data entry operators and staff from the Bangla Sahayata Kendra for election related work effectively sidelining the existing state infrastructure Instead the Commission has floated a Request for Proposal to hire one thousand fresh data entry operators and fifty software developers through an external private agency for a year a move that Banerjee terms as suspicious and unnecessary given the availability of competent personnel at the district level
She further argued that this outsourcing exercise raises legitimate doubts about data security and the motive behind bringing in outside agencies when local field offices have traditionally managed their own staffing needs questioning why the state election office is assuming this role The second major concern flagged in the letter pertains to the proposal of setting up polling stations inside private residential complexes a move she described as deeply problematic and discriminatory According to her such a step would create a class divide between the privileged residents of high rise buildings and the general public or have nots living in other areas effectively violating established norms of fairness.
She warned that private residential enclaves often restrict entry which could prevent authorised political representatives from inspecting the polling process thereby making these booths susceptible to manipulation and intimidation avoiding the transparent scrutiny present in public polling stations This letter follows her previous correspondence where she urged the poll body to halt the revision exercise citing the extreme pressure on Booth Level Officers which reportedly led to the suicide of an official in Jalpaiguri due to unmanageable workload
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