The Election Commission has given a special exemption for tea workers working in tea and cinchona gardens in North Bengal. These workers will now get the right to vote after showing their job documents. The Election Commission has increased the number of documents valid under SIR for workers working in tea gardens. The documents received for his work have been recognized.
election Commission Has sent an instruction in this regard to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of the state. It has been made clear in the instructions that to get your name added in the final voter list, you will have to show the employment documents of that particular plantation. However, valid proof of residence will have to be attached with it. Then there will be no problem in getting your name in the voter list.
Election This instruction of the commission is only for seven districts of North Bengal – Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Alipurduar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Cooch Behar. In SIR, only the workers working in tea and cinchona gardens there will get this special relaxation in documents.
The Election Commission had initially announced 11 documents for adding one's name to the voter list, later two more documents were added to it. First, Aadhaar card and second, SIR document of Bihar, but many laborers working in tea and cinchona gardens in North Bengal do not have those documents.
They are associated with gardens from their ancestors. Therefore, the District Magistrate of seven districts of North Bengal had requested the Commission to recognize the work documents of those laborers to include their names in the voter list. The Election Commission has accepted that proposal.
Tea garden workers migrated from Bihar and settled in these tea garden areas years ago. He does not have valid documents approved by the Election Commission. Although they are living there by building settlements, these communities have not yet been given land rights, due to which they do not have land records.
BJP leaders were raising this issue since October last year. The party's Darjeeling MP Raju Bist had sent letters to the Election Commission and the Chief Electoral Officer in October and November, saying that the tea workers and their families did not have the prescribed documentary proof prescribed by the Election Commission for their SIR. Besides, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Suvendu Adhikari had also written a letter to the Election Commission on the same issue.
After the Election Commission's decision, Raju Bist wrote on social media, "I am happy to inform that the Election Commission of India has approved the use of tea plantation and cinchona plantation records for SIR verification."
"This decision will benefit thousands of citizens who have long been denied basic documentation and participation in elections. Additionally, records of employment in tea gardens and cinchona plantations will now become an essential document for future official use," he said.
Suvendu Adhikari also posted on his X handle: “I would urge the voters of tea gardens and cinchona gardens to come forward and provide their employment records during the SIR process.”
A tea trade union leader in Dooars said, “There is no doubt that the BJP will try to explain that it is because of them that this decision has been taken in the interest of the tea growers, who were scared of the SIR process due to lack of proper documents.”
It is noteworthy that recently, the Commission has made another change in the SIR hearing process keeping in mind the backward people of Bengal. In the interest of isolated settlements and backward people of the state, the National Election Commission has allowed hearings to be held in 'Decentralized Hearing Centres'. This step is to ensure that people living in isolated settlements or backward areas of the state can also participate in the SIR hearing.
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Input-TV9 Bangla/Srabanti Saha
