Queues on penultimate day to avoid last-min hearing rush

Kolkata: The eve of the last hearing day for the SIR of electoral rolls saw crowds of anxious electors queueing up at hearing centres to protect their voting rights. Even as the SIR hearing concluded in most of the centres across the city, the process is still going on at a few centres, such as the Survey Building at Alipore.

The hearing is slated to wrap up on Saturday, the last chance for people summoned for discrepancies to retain their names as voters, after the Election Commission extended deadline following the Supreme Court's direction.


To avoid the last-day rush, many electors chose to attend the hearing on Friday. In the afternoon, over 100 electors stood in a queue for a hearing at the Survey Building to sort out logical discrepancies.

Kalighat resident Bharati Mukherjee attended the hearing on behalf of her son-in-law, Dipak Das, who is out of station. "The notice was issued against him for a name mismatch. As he is not in the city, I attended the hearing on his behalf," said Mukherjee.

Kashmira Begum, an elector from the Tollygunge constituency, could not attend the hearing last month as she was not in the city. "Apprehending more crowd on the last day, I managed time and appeared for the hearing today. My name was wrongly mentioned as Mumtaz in the electoral roll," she said.

Pending hearings are taking place since the past week as several voters could not appear on dates mentioned in notices. "It's over in north Kolkata, while it is still on across a few centres in south Kolkata," said an EC official.

Meanwhile, the row over distribution of forms, termed "unauthorised" by CEO Manoj Agarwal, continued as it was reportedly distributed in Behala West on Friday. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Valentine's day wishes, messages and quotes !