Bhubaneswar: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll in Odisha will begin in the first week of September, after a gap of 24 years, officials said Thursday.
The exercise will be conducted under the guidelines of the Election Commission of India (ECI). During the SIR, Aadhaar and ration cards will not be accepted as valid documents. Instead, 11 specified identity proofs will be considered, though the list may be modified with additions or removals if required.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) RS Gopalan said Monday that the commission is focused on ensuring the integrity of the electoral process. He noted that despite allegations of irregularities, including voter fraud, public trust in ECI will not diminish.
Meanwhile, nearly 5,000 Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) issued from Gujarat were rejected during verification in Banki, they added. Gopalan said Odisha will begin the SIR process to strengthen the state’s voter registration system, a move initiated by the ECI to ensure greater transparency.
Speaking at his office, Gopalan said the last voter list revision of this kind was carried out in 2002. He added that 11 documents will be required for verification under SIR.
Gopalan also revealed that around 7,000 voter IDs in Odisha were recently updated and replaced with new EPICs. Of these, 5,000 were found to overlap with Gujarat’s voter list and were subsequently removed. The remaining 2,000 EPIC numbers overlapped with Karnataka, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
He clarified that the overlapping EPIC numbers were issued only for identity purposes and could not be used to cast votes. The Election Commission will now provide voter ID cards with unique EPIC numbers to prevent duplication and ensure accuracy in the electoral rolls.
Gopalan dismissed allegations of vote tampering raised by Opposition parties, saying the charges were baseless. He said that all complaints, including those from the BJD and other parties, have been fully addressed. However, certain petitions filed by BJD fell outside the time frame prescribed by the EC guidelines. If any party seeks relief, he added, they must approach the High Court or the Supreme Court, whose directions will be examined seriously by the commission.
Clarifying discrepancies between Assembly and Lok Sabha polling, Gopalan said that a voter may cast a ballot for the Assembly and not for the Lok Sabha, or may choose not to vote at all and return back. Such variations naturally lead to differences in voting percentages.
PNN
