ON THE first day of hearings in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district as part of the SIR (Special Intensive Revision) exercise to decide if electors who have been issued notices will remain on the rolls, Bidhubhushan Mondol, 62, and his wife Renuka, 52, slowly make their way to one of the two ‘hearing tables’ inside the office of the Block Development Officer at Canning.Their names figure in the 2025 voter list, but they have been issued notices because neither they nor their parents figure in the 2002 electoral roll — the legacy base list used as a reference for the current exercise. “I’m worried about my oldest son who’s in Tamil Nadu for work and can’t come back now. I came with his documents but I don’t know whether he’ll be allowed,” Mondol tells The Indian Express.At 12 noon Saturday, the couple was among the hundreds arriving before designated government officers as the first phase of hearings begins, covering the state’s 32 lakh unmapped voters — those whose names, or whose parents’ names, did not figure in the 2002 SIR list. These hearings, along with the next phase for ‘logical discrepancies’ such as data mismatches or inconsistencies in voter enumeration forms, are part of the SIR voter list revision.As reported by The Indian Express on Saturday, the hearings are being held amid concerns flagged by an association of state civil service officers that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) responsible under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, for preparing, revising and maintaining electoral rolls, are being bypassed in the process.For the hearings, the Election Commission of India has allowed only Booth Level Officers (BLOs), their supervisors, EROs and micro-observers to be present, meaning Booth Level Agents (BLAs) will be kept out. Unlike BLOs, who are government officials deployed for the process, BLAs are political party representatives who were involved in collecting documents.Officials and micro-observers — Group ‘B’ Central government employees tasked with examining enumeration forms and entries made by BLOs to eliminate errors — will sit at 11 tables in each of the state’s 294 Assembly constituencies. They will hear cases relating to the “unmapped” voters as well as 1.36 crore electors flagged for ‘logical discrepancies’ such as data mismatches or inconsistencies in voter enumeration forms. Officials have said the number of tables could be increased if required.Around 4,000 micro-observers have been enlisted, with West Bengal Chief Election Officer Manoj Agarwal saying notices would be issued to those who do not comply with orders.Story continues below this adInside the BDO office at Canning, an Assistant ERO and a micro-observer sit at each of the two tables. “Each table has to take documents of around 200 electors today. But as of now we are able to take only 21. But we have to complete all 200 people today,” AERO Mahaprasad Sinha Roy says.At the Canning BDO office, a Block Level Officer walks down the line, addressing questions and concerns. “A lot of voters have different names and spellings in different documents,” he says. “There are also spelling differences in the 2002 and the 2025 voter list. We’ve already told them what documents to carry.”Gurupada Naskar, 52, is among such voters. She says: “My mother’s name is Kumudini Naskar. But in the 2002 list, it was Kamala Naskar. Now, she was called for a hearing. She is 72 and bedridden, so I came with documents and an affidavit. We can’t help it if it doesn’t work. But my mother has been voting for 50 years.”But Noorbanu Mistri, 37, says she isn’t worried. “We’re not Bangladeshi. My fathers and grandfathers have been residing for more than 200 years. So, why should I be worried?”Story continues below this adMeanwhile, the exercise took a political turn after four family members of ruling Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar were called for hearings. Dastidar, the party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha, sought to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre, saying: “I have been in politics for 50 years. If the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] can hit my family like this, then imagine what would happen to a common man.”Some sporadic violence was also reported, with cadres of the TMC and the BJP clashing outside one hearing venue in Asansol.The exercise comes days after the association of officers flagged serious concerns over the potential for large-scale “system-driven” deletions that EROs could be blamed for, despite not being involved in generating notices. In a letter to West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal, with a copy to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s office, the West Bengal Civil Service (Executive) Officers’ Association on Wednesday flagged the “suo motu system-driven deletion of electors from the draft electoral rolls in West Bengal in the ongoing SIR process bypassing the statutory role of EROs”.The first phase of hearings will cover the 32 lakh unmapped voters, followed by 1.36 crore cases involving logical discrepancies. Sources say cases involving minor discrepancies are expected to be disposed of quickly.Story continues below this ad“Some electors have a mismatch in their father’s name, age or spelling. BLOs have already started asking voters with such discrepancies to bring their necessary documents, and these cases will be disposed of after verification,” a source said.