KOLKATA: Seventy-seven-year-old Mina Jalal, who was under adjudication for SIR, never came to know in her lifetime that she qualified to be a voter. The voter of the Chowringhee assembly constituency passed away on March 27, days before being named by the EC in the final list of April 9. Though she qualified, her husband, Jalaluddin Ahmed Siddique, did not pass the adjudication process, nor did her son Imran Zaki. Both have moved the tribunal. Three of her other sons and a daughter have qualified as “voters” following the submission of enumeration forms. “She was sick and under mental stress as she knew that she could not vote in the assembly poll, but when her name was cleared by the EC, she was no more – it is an irony of fate. She had voted in all the polls in the past, and this time she was a bit distressed… As she was sick, the BLO came and collected all the documents,” said social entrepreneur and educationist, Imran Zaki. “We had all our names in the 2002 SIR, and still, after sharing all data and documents, we are constantly being harassed. They are not giving any reason why our names were deleted. There should be transparency on the part of the EC. They are playing hide-and-seek with a malafide intent.” “Our family has been living on Weston Street in Bowbazar for over seven decades, where our grandfather Nazir Ahmed stayed, who was with the British police, and still we are staying in the same building,” Zaki added. He said his father, an 81-year-old businessman and social worker, is “very worried” as he fears that he cannot cast his vote this time. “We belong to this country and are associated with the city from the British era. How can they delete our names? This is mockery of the democratic system. We hope we will be enrolled soon,” he added.
