BJD alleges minority voters deliberately deleted during SIR

Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s opposition BJD Monday alleged that names of people belonging to minority communities were being deliberately deleted from the electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), and demanded stringent action against officials involved in such “irregularities”.

In a memorandum to Odisha’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), the party submitted “evidence” in support of its allegations, BJD senior vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra said.

Cases of irregularities have been reported from Dhamnagar Notified Area Council (NAC) in Bhadrak district, he claimed.

Mishra alleged misuse of ‘Form-7’ applications (mostly used for deletion of names from electoral rolls) during the verification process of SIR.

According to the Election Commission schedule, August 19 was the deadline for filing claims and objections, and the final decision on those is to be made by September 17.

The final electoral roll for Odisha is slated to be published September 21.

Mishra said the BJD had earlier drawn the attention of the CEO over the alleged misuse of ‘Form-7’ in different parts of the state.

In this context, a complaint filed at Dhamnagar police station by booth-level officers (BLOs) engaged in the verification process has come to light, he claimed.

According to the police complaint, the Executive Officer-cum-Assistant Electoral Officer of Dhamnagar NAC had allegedly been exerting pressure on BLOs in matters relating to ‘Form-7’ applications.

“Attempts have allegedly been made to delete the names of voters without following the prescribed electoral procedure and security protocols. It has also been alleged that BLOs who refused to comply with such instructions were threatened with show-cause notices and other consequences,” the memorandum said.

Mishra said the BJD demanded a transparent and impartial inquiry by an appropriate officer of the district administration.

“The accused official should be relieved of all responsibilities relating to Form-7 until the completion of the inquiry,” he said.

Re-verification should be carried out in cases where the voters concerned have raised objections to the deletion of their names or where any procedural irregularity has been identified, the BJD said.