Kolkata: Voters keen to know their new ward numbers after delimitation cannot find it online. They will have to visit Alipore DM office or the offices of district election officers at Jessop Building and Alipore Survey Building to have a look at the roll.In case of any discrepancy, a claim or objection must be filed by Nov 2 at these three offices. The final roll, after making necessary changes to the draft roll, will be published on Nov 12. There is no option to file objections online and only physical applications must be submitted by visiting the offices, poll officials have informed political parties.The draft rolls are available with the 16 municipal returning officers (MROs), one each for the 16 boroughs of KMC. State govt sources said 10 of the 16 municipal returning officers (MROs) have their offices in New Treasury Building while three each have their offices in DEO North Kolkata and DEO South Kolkata’s offices.Congress has written to Bengal’s chief electoral officer seeking an online publication of the draft roll for voters’ convenience. When the draft roll was handed over to parties on Monday, many questioned how the authorities expected someone living in Metiabruz to come to Alipore to see their names on the draft roll.“Are the authorities really interested in letting common people see the draft roll? They are merely fulfilling their statutory obligations with no inclination to help common people,” said Ashutosh Chatterjee, a Congress functionary who was present at the roll handover on Monday.Subrata Dutta, CPM’s Kolkata district secretariat member who represented the party at the roll handover, said a resident of Cossipore must come to Alipore to see the electoral roll because the office of the MRO for Borough I is in Alipore New Administrative. “We told the poll officials to send the draft roll to all KMC borough offices if they cannot upload the draft roll online. Even for filing objections people have to come to these three offices,” Dutta said.KMC sources told TOI that none of the borough offices of the civic body has copies of the draft roll.The draft roll published on Sunday and distributed to political parties on Monday is the roll of July 1. But opposition functionaries said that after they met state election commission (SEC) officials on Wednesday, the SEC had told them the polls were likely to be held based on the Oct 1 roll.“It will not be a problem. The changes in the roll, between July 1 and Oct 1, will be added in supplementary rolls. What roll is adopted for the polls is the decision of SEC. We will do as directed by SEC,” said a state govt official.The draft roll was published by SDO Alipore, who is the municipal electoral registration officer for KMC polls.
