Bhubaneswar, May 30: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls commenced across Odisha from Today, with more than 45,000 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) deployed for a comprehensive verification of voter details.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), the revision exercise will continue until June 28, while the final electoral roll will be published on September 6 after completion of the entire process.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) N.B.S. Gopalan said that 45,255 BLOs have been assigned to conduct door-to-door verification across the state. The officers will verify existing voter records, facilitate the enrolment of eligible citizens who have recently turned 18, remove names of deceased or shifted voters, and rectify discrepancies in voter details.
The CEO informed that all BLOs have undergone the required training for the exercise. He also noted that around 33,026 Booth Level Agents (BLAs) have been appointed so far and urged recognised political parties to nominate BLAs for every polling booth to ensure smooth implementation of the revision process.
As part of the exercise, BLOs will visit households during daytime hours while adhering to prevailing heatwave guidelines. They will also remain available at their respective polling booths from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. daily to address voter grievances and assist citizens with electoral roll-related issues.
Mr. Gopalan stated that any individual identified as an outsider or foreign national during the verification process will have his or her name removed from the electoral roll in accordance with election rules.
Officials revealed that nearly 95 per cent of Odisha’s voters had already been mapped during the last intensive revision conducted in 2002. However, around 17 per cent of these records contain logical errors such as spelling mistakes, age discrepancies, changes in names, or missing parental details. These issues will be corrected during the current revision drive.
Voters whose information is already accurate will only need to fill out the prescribed forms and submit them to the BLOs. Those wishing to update their voter identity card photographs can either provide a recent passport-sized photograph or have their picture captured and uploaded by BLOs through a mobile application.
The CEO further informed that rationalisation of polling stations across the state will also be completed by June 28.
Following the completion of the verification process, the draft electoral roll will be published on July 5. Citizens will be able to file objections or seek corrections until August 4. After disposal of all claims and objections, the final electoral roll will be released on September 6.
