EC disallows funds sanction letter as valid SIR document
A fresh political row erupted on Monday after the Election Commission of India (ECI) issued a clarification disallowing the admissibility of funds sanction letters for rural housing schemes of the Centre and state government as an SIR document in West Bengal.
Reacting to the development, the ruling TMC alleged that the move was yet another ploy by the poll body to maximise disenfranchisement of valid voters.
It further alleged that the poll panel notice -- arriving a day after the hearing process of voters over logical discrepancies in enumeration forms and unmapped electors ended -- opened up additional possibilities of unfair deletions from the final rolls scheduled to be published on February 28.
Clarifying a query raised by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, an EC letter dated February 16 refused to accept financial assistance sanction letters issued under government housing schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna – Gramin (PMAY-G), the Indira Awas Yojna (IAY) and Banglar Bari (Gramin) as valid documentation for SIR hearings.
“The commission in its SIR instruction dated 27.10.25 has prescribed ‘any land/house allotment certificate by government’ as one of the indicative documents. The financial assistance sanction letters issued under schemes such as PMAY-G, IAY and Banglar Bari (Gramin) etc are not the documents as specified either in the order of the Supreme Court or in the SIR instructions referred to above,” the EC clarification, referring to a February 9 apex court order, said.
Responding sharply to the development, Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya alleged this was yet another move by the commission to “specifically target Bengal and its voters”.
“This clarification is self-contradictory. What does this mean? The EC agrees to land allotment certificate as one of the valid documents. Can government housing funds be sanctioned to those who are not registered land owners? If financial assistance letters have been awarded, it automatically means that the beneficiary is a land owner,” Bhattacharya said.
