Kolkata, Dec 9 (UNI) West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal on Tuesday said that nearly 70 per cent of the voters living in North Kolkata's Sonagachi locality, India's largest red-light area, have already submitted their forms for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Agarwal, who had announced on Monday that he would personally visit Sonagachi along with his team to assist sex workers with the SIR process after advocacy groups like Amra Padatik flagged their difficulties, said officials had already been deployed to ensure voter inclusion in the area.
He said that while around 70 per cent of the approximately 12,000 eligible voters had submitted their filled-in forms, the remaining 30 per cent, about 3,500 voters, were being assisted by district election officers, EROs, AEROs, and BLOs. Booth Level Agents representing various political parties were also helping to ensure 100 per cent coverage of voters in the Girish Park area.
Agarwal noted that some residents initially felt hesitant, but following outreach by his team on the importance of filling out the forms, they came forward and completed the process with the assistance of BLOs.
The Election Commission has set up a special camp in Sonagachi to facilitate the filling of SIR enumeration forms. District election officials have been deployed for the exercise, and similar camps have been requested for other red-light areas across West Bengal. UNI PC SQ SSP