BHUBANESWAR: Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Odisha RS Gopalan on Sunday warned that salaries of officials showing poor performance in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) digitisation exercise could be withheld if targets are not met within stipulated timelines.
Conducting a unit-wise review of SIR activities in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area, Gopalan inspected digitisation centres in Assembly constituencies 112, 113 and 114. He was accompanied by the additional CEO, joint CEO and other officials.
The review was carried out in the presence of district electoral officer-cum-BMC commissioner Chanchal Rana. The team visited three BMC zones, Bhubaneswar block and Laxmisagar to assess progress and identify measures for achieving 100 per cent grounding of SIR activities within the prescribed schedule.
During the review, the CEO interacted with electoral registration officers (EROs), assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs), booth- level officers (BLOs) and supervisors to assess field-level implementation.
In Assembly constituency 114, a BLO and the supervisor concerned were found lagging significantly behind, resulting in low booth-level achievement. Gopalan directed them to improve performance within 24 hours, warning that their salaries would be withheld if they failed to do so.
He cautioned that similar instances of negligence would be viewed seriously and reiterated the need for timely and accurate completion of the digitisation process. City election authorities assured the CEO of continuous compliance.
