Bhubaneswar: As many as 58 lakh voters in Odisha have been issued notices under Election Commission of India’s (ECI) ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the eastern state, said the state’s Chief Electoral Officer RS Gopalan on July 21, Tuesday.
The 58 notices, Gopalan said, are being delivered at the homes of these suspect voters by Booth Level Officers (BLOs), who are also collecting supporting documents from voters to verify their particulars.
Of the 58 lakh notices being served, about 12 lakh are meant for voters whose records could not be mapped during the verification exercise, he said. The rest 46 lakh notices are being issued to voters because discrepancies were detected in their electoral details, he added.
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Voters who receive these notices may have to visit the office of the Election Registration Officer (ERO) if the documents they submit are found to be insufficient. “If the required documents submitted by the voter are found to be sufficient, there will be no need to visit the ERO’s office,” said Gopalan. There is also a provision for the ERO to seek information for additional clarification through video calls instead of insisting on a physical appearance, he added.
The SIR exercise is set to be completed by September 2, and the final electoral roll will be published on September 6, said the CEO. As many as 26,745 Form-6 applications have been received from voters in Odisha seeking inclusion since July 5. Every eligible voter will be given adequate opportunity to establish their eligibility before the final electoral roll is published, he added.
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In neighbouring West Bengal, the SIR exercise conducted before the assembly polls in April and May had resulted in the exclusion of over 58 lakh electors during the enumeration phase, Supreme Court of India was informed on July 17 during the hearing of a PIL. While 9.64 lakh applications for inclusion (Forms 6 and 6A) and over 99,000 applications for deletion (Form 7) were received during the claims and objections phase in Bengal, only around 1.82 lakh additions were ultimately reflected in the final electoral roll published on February 28.
People in Bengal whose names have been deleted from electoral rolls have been excluded from welfare measures like public distribution system (PDS) and Annapurna schemes in the state. They are being denied caste certificates, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayan told the apex court.
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As many as 18 tribunals are functioning in West Bengal currently to deal with the claims and objections of voters in the state resulting out of the SIR exercise. Nearly 33.5 lakh appeals are pending in these tribunals. The case disposal rate shows that 70 per cent of the voters’ claims are allowed, the SC was informed.
In Odisha, more than 20 lakh names were already deleted from the electoral rolls as part of the ongoing SIR, as per the draft report published by ECI on July 5. Among the deleted voters, 8.32 lakh (2.49% of total voters) were dead; 10.07 lakh voters (3.02%) either absent or shifted; and 1.58 lakh (0.47%) those who had enrolled themselves at more than one places.
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Before SIR, the number of total voters in Odisha was 3,33,99,591. As per the published draft report, the number stood at 3,13,87,034. Of these, 1,60,19,176 are male, 1,53,65,083 female, and 2,775 transgender.