Bhubaneswar | The Election Commission of India (ECI) will engage over 45,000 booth-level officers (BLOs) to conduct Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters' list in Odisha from May 30, an official said on Friday.
The entire exercise will continue till June 28, and the final voters' list after SIR will be published on September 6, Odisha Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) R S Gopalan told media persons here.
A total of 45,255 booth-level officers (BLOs) have been engaged to visit door-to-door across Odisha to verify voter details, he said.
Training of all BLOs has been completed. As about 33,026 booth-level agents (BLAs) have been nominated so far, the CEO appealed to all recognised political parties to appoint a BLA in every booth for smooth completion of the process.
The BLOs will visit every household during the daytime, following heatwave guidelines and remain present in their booths from 3 to 5 pm to hear grievances from voters, Gopalan said.
They will visit every household to verify existing electors, enrol new voters who have turned 18, delete names of deceased/shifted persons, and correct errors.
"If anyone is found to be an outsider or foreign national, his/her name will be omitted from the electoral roll," the CEO said.
Nearly 95 per cent of the total voters have already been mapped with the last SIR conducted in 2002. Of these, about 17 per cent have logical mistakes—such as name changes, spelling corrections, age updates, and addition of father/mother names—which will be addressed during the SIR, he stated.
Gopalan said the other voters, whose details are correct, are only required to fill up the two forms and submit them to the BLO.
Voters who want to affix a new photograph on their voter ID can do so during the exercise. They can provide a new passport-size photo to the BLO or the BLO can take a photo and upload it using the mobile app, he said.
He said that rationalisation of the polling stations will also be completed by June 28.
The draft electoral roll will be published on July 5, while objections and demands can be submitted till August 4. After the resolution of the objections, the final list will be out on September 6.