BHUBANESWAR: Over 45,000 booth-level officers (BLOs) will carry out the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across the state from Saturday.
Addressing mediapersons ahead of the exercise, chief electoral officer (CEO) RS Gopalan said all preparatory work, including printing of forms and training of BLOs, has already been completed. Officials have been instructed to ensure that no eligible voter is left out of the electoral roll and no ineligible person is included, he said.
As per the schedule, the BLOs will conduct door-to-door visits from May 30 to June 28 for distribution and collection of enumeration forms. Each elector will be provided with two pre-printed forms containing personal details, family information and references linked to the 2002 electoral roll.
Gopalan said the draft electoral roll will be published on July 5. Claims and objections can be filed between July 5 and August 4, while disposal of claims and objections will continue till September 2. The final electoral roll will be published on September 6.
The CEO said that 3.16 crore out of around 3.34 crore voters, accounting for 94.61 per cent of the state’s electors, have already been mapped with the electoral roll prepared during the last SIR conducted in 2002. Voters who could not be mapped during the pre-SIR phase can still be included after submitting the required information during the ongoing revision process.
To ensure transparency and participation of political parties, recognised parties have been requested to appoint booth-level agents (BLAs) for every polling station. So far, 33,026 BLAs have been appointed across Odisha, he said.
During the house-to-house survey, the BLOs will collect one signed copy of the filled enumeration form and return the second signed copy to voters as an acknowledgement receipt.
The forms will be available in Odia. Voters can also fill the forms online on official portal, voters.eci.gov.in, or ECINET app.
Eligible citizens seeking fresh enrolment in the electoral roll will be provided Form-6 along with a special declaration form during the field visits. In view of the prevailing heatwave conditions, special safety guidelines have been issued for BLOs. They have been directed to conduct field work only between 6 am and 11 am and from 4 pm to 7 pm, while avoiding outdoor work between 12 noon and 3 pm.
The CEO said SPs and electoral registration officers (EROs) of all districts have been instructed to ensure immediate security support for BLOs in case of any untoward incidents during duty.
Deputy CEO Laxmi Prasad Sahu told TNIE that voter help desks have been created to assist electors in finding their names and filling up forms. The help desks have been created at DEO-level in all 30 districts, ERO-level across all 147 constituencies and state-level in CEO Odisha office.
Sahu said that BLOs will visit households two to three times during the house-to-house survey to provide enumeration forms and collect them. Electors not taking part in the SIR drive will face deletion from the voter list and will have to undergo more rigorous scrutiny during re-enrolling through Form-6.
“There will also be legal action against those giving false declaration during the process,” he added.
