Saturday, January 28 2006 18:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: The names of about 3.50 lakh dead voters have so far been detected and are being deleted from the electoral rolls in assembly poll-bound West Bengal,at the directive of the Election Commission.

'We have identified nearly 3.50 lakh dead voters in the state's electoral rolls and the process has already been initiated to delete the names as early as possible,'' state's Chief Electoral Officer Debasish Sen told sources here today (Jan 28,2006).

''More such dead voters may be identified in the next few days,'' Sen said.

"To identify those voters who had moved away, it would take a little more time," he said.

The Election Commission had earlier asked the state election department to take a serious view of the existence of the names of a 'massive' number of dead voters as also those who had shifted residence, in the electoral rolls.

The process would have to be completed before the publication of the final electoral rolls on February 15, Deputy Election Commissioner R Balakrishnan said during a meeting with the chief electoral officer and district magistrates who are district returning officers, here yesterday (Jan 27,2006).

Sen said that he held a meeting with his department's officers during the day to review the feedbacks received from all the 19 districts and decided to issue directives 19 to maintain the time schedule of the publication of final electoral rolls on February 15.