Hans News Service Bhubaneswar

TheSpecial Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Odisha entered the final phase as the deadline for filing claims and objections for registration and revision ended on Wednesday, officials said. A statement issued by the office of the Odisha’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said the final decision on all claims and objections will be taken by September 17 and the final voter list will be published on September 21.

The CEO said that till August 19, notices have been issued in the names of a total of 58,36,430 voters. Of them, notices have been successfully delivered to 58,36,374 voters, the CEO statement said. “Till now, a total of 3,09,71,941 eligible voters in the State have been considered eligible for inclusion in the final voter list,” it said, adding that the number may further increase as the hearing process is ongoing.

Officials made it clear that the electors to whom notices have been issued but have been unable to submit the required valid certificates or correct information will be removed from the voter list. The SIR process also witnessed great enthusiasm among the youths to add their names in the voter list. A total of 2,79,315 people applied for new name registration through Form-6. Also, 53,625 applications have been received through Form-7 for voters whose names are in two places to remove their names from one place and put them in another place, and for deleting the names of deceased persons, the statement said. As many as 1,97,952 voters have applied through Form-8 for the names of all members of a family to be put together in one polling station along with the name, address, age or other corrections in the voter list, it said.