Even as the hearing for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls nears the end in West Bengal, the woes of people scrambling to appear for the last-minute hearing continue across the State. Saturday (February 7) marked the last day of hearing of notices issued under the category of “logical discrepancies”.
Long queues were seen outside hearing centres across the State, and stories of tragedies surfaced from some places. Mohammad Yasin Ansari, a High Madrasah teacher from Gazole in Malda, lost his wife and child on the way to a hearing centre in a road accident. However, he had to attend the hearing, leaving the bodies at a State-run hospital.
The Trinamool Congress highlighted the plight of the madrasah teacher in a social media post. “This incident exposes the true nature of the SIR process far more clearly than any statistic ever could. Mohammad Yasin Ansari was travelling with his family to comply with a SIR hearing when a highway accident killed his wife and nine-month-old child. Instead of sympathy or time to grieve, the system responded with harassment,” the ruling party posted on social media.
Bengal’s SIR hearing woes continue as voters line up at centres
There have been reports of similar incidents during the SIR hearings, including at Howrah, where bereaved family members attended the hearing after the death of their kin in an accident.
