West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (PTI photo/file)
NEW DELHI: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she would move the Supreme Court against what she described as the “inhumane” conduct of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state.Addressing a public meeting in Sagar Island in South 24 Parganas district, she alleged that “fear, harassment and administrative arbitrariness linked to the exercise had led to deaths and hospitalisations of several people”.”We are moving court tomorrow against the inhumane treatment and the death of so many people due to the SIR,” she was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.”If allowed, I will also move the Supreme Court and plead as a common person against this inhumane exercise. I am also a trained lawyer,” she further said.The TMC supremo alleged that names were being “arbitrarily struck off” the voter rolls without valid reasons, turning a routine administrative process into a “source of fear” ahead of the assembly elections.Mamata Banerjee also claimed that terminally ill people and elderly citizens were “being forced to stand in long queues to prove they were legitimate voters”.”How would BJP leaders feel if someone made their old parents stand in line to prove their identity. Since the SIR began, so many people have died due to fear, and several others are in hospital,” she claimed. Mamata Banerjee on Saturday wrote to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, criticising the “procedural violations” and “administrative lapses” in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which is currently under way in the poll-bound state.Mamata Banerjee called the exercise “unplanned, arbitrary and adhoc” and urged the poll body chief to stop the SIR if glitches remain unattainted.”I am once again constrained to write to you in order to place on record my grave concern regarding the serious irregularities, procedural violations, and administrative lapses being witnessed during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in West Bengal,” she wrote in a letter.She also expressed apprehension about the large-scale disenfranchisement of eligible voters, which she said would be a “direct assault on the foundational principles of democratic governance”.”I strongly urge you to immediately address and rectify the glitches, address the flaws and make the necessary corrections, failing which this unplanned, arbitrary and adhoc exercise must be halted. If allowed to continúe in its present form, it will result in irreparable damage, large-scale disenfranchisement of eligible voters, and a direct assault on the foundational principles of democratic governance, ” she further wrote.