Odisha Chief Electoral Officer RS Gopalan on Monday directed electoral registration officers to verify the voter details “properly” before deleting names from the electoral rolls, PTI reported.
This came amid allegations of “wrongful deletion” of around 9.8 lakh names during an electoral mapping exercise conducted ahead of the special intensive revision of voter lists in the state, The Indian Express reported.
During the door-to-door mapping exercise, carried out between January and March, booth level officers had identified around 9.8 lakh names for deletion. These voters were flagged for reasons such as death, migration, duplicate entries or doubtful matches, PTI reported. Booth level officers are not authorised to delete names from the rolls.
Unidentified poll officials told The Indian Express that a large number of complaints had been received regarding wrongful deletion of names, including cases where electors were found to be present. These complaints also included instances where booth level officers had neither conducted field visits nor carried out proper verification.
Gopalan said that “usually 7-9 lakh names are deleted from the lists every year in Odisha on account of deaths and shifting of residences”, PTI reported.
He added that the number is “slightly high because of door-to-door mapping by the [booth level officers] ahead of the SIR exercise”, The Indian Express reported.
The voter roll revision process in Odisha was scheduled to start from April 1 but has been deferred due to the ongoing elections in five states. The process is likely to start in May.
In March, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi informed the Assembly that approximately 7.6 lakh names were deleted between June and March 22, PTI reported.
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