The Election Commission on Sunday said that official employment records of workers at tea gardens and cinchona plantations in north Bengal would be counted as a valid document to prove their identity for the ongoing special intensive revision of voter rolls in West Bengal.
This would be applicable for workers in seven districts of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, North Dinajpur and South Dinajpur, the poll body said in a letter to the chief electoral officer of West Bengal.
Many of these workers do not possess the documents mandated by the Election Commission for the voter roll revision process. The commission had earlier said that tea estate workers would be verified by district election officers, The Times of India reported.
Since October last year, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have been making representations to the poll panel on the subject, The Telegraph reported.
Raju Bista, the party’s Darjeeling MP, had sent letters to the poll body in October and November highlighting that the North Bengal districts were home to large tea garden, tea tribe, and forest-dwelling communities who have been excluded from electoral rolls over the years.
“Historically, since the British era, and even decades after Independence, most workers in tea and cinchona gardens possessed no official documents other than their employment records,” he had said while pointing that many of…
Source: Tea garden work records to be held as valid ID proof for SIR in north Bengal, says EC
