Kolkata: Electors who could not make it to the electoral roll even after submission of passports and domicile certificates are bewildered about what else they need to produce to convince the tribunal about their authenticity as legitimate voters.Even after the electoral roll is frozen, deleted voters living in different parts of the city continue filing appeals to the tribunal with a hope to have their voting right back so that they can exercise their franchise in the next elections to be held after the upcoming assembly poll. For many of them, it is the second or third time that they are producing their domicile certificates and passports to break the SIR logjam. Most of the voters had to obtain and submit domicile certificates for the first time during the hearing. But the passport holders are producing the international travel document for the third time as they produced it for the enumeration and then the hearing.Beadon Street resident Soma Das, 35, had to visit the SIR hearing centre twice to submit a domicile certificate asked by the EC officials. “Though I had submitted all other documents during the enumeration, the commission was not satisfied and I was called for a hearing. On the first day of the hearing, the EC officials checked my documents and demanded a domicile certificate. I was given a week’s time to get a domicile certificate, which I obtained from the Kolkata collectorate and submitted with the EC. Despite the painstaking task to get hold of the domicile certificate, my name has been struck off the roll. I am appealing to the tribunal again along with this certificate issued to me by the govt authority. What else am I supposed to produce? I am not getting any logical reply to my question,” she said.Like Das, many others had to make a scramble to the collector’s office and get the domicile certificate as instructed by the EC officials who conducted the SIR hearings. But that did not save their names on the electoral roll. “I have prayed to the tribunal along with the domicile certificate, which I obtained following the EC officials’ instruction during the hearing. I have submitted a voter card, Aadhaar card, matriculation certificate and domicile certificate that are all deemed as official documents. What else can one show to get his or her voting right?” said Rinku Ojha, a resident of Rashbehari constituency.The passport holders whose names were deleted have also raised the same question. “The passport is issued by the ministry of external affairs under the central govt and none can undertake any foreign travel without this document, which is given to a citizen after a thorough scrutiny. While appealing to the tribunal to recover my voting right, I am producing my passport for the third time. If they don’t believe in the citizenship of an elector like me who is in possession of a passport, why are they not making it clear exactly what they want? Besides, a passport is one of the 13 documents specified by the EC during the SIR exercise. Even the same harassment has been meted out to my son who is a medical student at Diamond Harbour,” said Entally resident Mohd Shamim Akhter.Another tribunal applicant Umesh Halim of Mominpur said: “During the hearing, I showed my passport. But I don’t know whether the tribunal will accept this document.”
