West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday pointed to the difficulties faced in the availability of birth certificate for special intensive revision (SIR) and cited the previous boundaries of institutional delivery. This has come at a time when the Election Commission is planning to start SIR in West Bengal in the coming days. The Chief Minister of West Bengal unveiled the new Woodburn 2 building ‘Ananya’ at SSKM Hospital in Kolkata and said that from where will people get the birth certificate for SIR? This was not possible at that time, because institutional delivery was not prevalent.
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Earlier on 11 September, BJP leader Dilip Ghosh described the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list as a “good practice” and said that the Election Commission should have done this practice in West Bengal before doing it in Bihar. Speaking to ANI, Ghosh said, “First, it should have been done in Bengal, but it is a good thing that this process has been adopted in Bihar. It will be implemented in Bengal as well. All preparations are underway for this.”
Although the Election Commission of India (ECI) has not yet announced the dates of SIR organizing in the state, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said on August 17 that it would be decided. The CEC had said in a press conference in Delhi, “The three Election Commissioners will decide when the SIR will be implemented in West Bengal or other states.” Mamta Banerjee expressed concern over the financial problems of the state, especially the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation and funding of projects. He highlighted that West Bengal is not getting Rs 20,000 crore as GST compensation and is facing challenges in raising funds for various initiatives.
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Addressing a program, Mamta Banerjee said, “We do not get a compensation of 20 thousand crores for GST. We do not get money for projects either. We are number one in health services in India….” After the announcement of new GST reforms to be implemented from 22 September, many political parties demanded special compensation from the Center for the next five years. The main reason behind the compensation was to protect the state’s revenue from damage.