Bengal CEO Office Begins Process Of Creating Database Of Polling Booths

(MENAFN- IANS) Kolkata, Sep 20 (IANS) In order to help the voters of West Bengal to have a first-hand and detailed information about the polling booths where they will be supposed to caste their voters in the crucial state assembly elections scheduled next year, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal has started the process of creating a virtual and compressive data base of such booths.

An insider from the CEO's office said that the database will be handy for the voters to know their allotted polling booths in advance, considering that, in case of many existing and old voters, the booth numbers where they will be casting their votes next year might be different from the booths that they voted in the previous year.

This will be because West Bengal will be going for the crucial assembly elections next year with an almost 17 per cent increase in the number of polling booths compared to what it was both during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls.

Again, this will be because the number of booths for the 2026 Assembly election will be with a network of a little over 94,000 booths, a 16.50 per cent rise over the number of booths in the previous elections.

Explaining the reason behind the increase in the number of booths, a CEO office insider said that as per the directive of the Election Commission of India (ECI), this time the total number of voters in a single booth should not exceed 1,200, and hence, to accommodate that, the number of booths had to be increased.

“Therefore, the CEO's office is preparing a detailed database to keep a clear record of the exact location, infrastructure, and facilities of the old and new booths. Information will be kept on whether all the services are properly available for the voters at each booth. The sole aim of the CEO's office is to ensure that the voters have advance information about the polling booth allotted to him or her in advance so that the voters concerned will not face any difficulty on the polling day,” the CEO's office insider said.

The database, the insider added, will contain details on information like the distance of the allotted booth from the residence of the voter concerned, details of available facilities at the booth, like that of a ramp, other facilities like washrooms and toilets, along with other infrastructure conditions there, and the number of exit and entry points there, among others.

“The district and block level electoral administration will have direct access to the database,” the insider added.

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