Bhubaneswar: Over 17.13 lakh voters have been added to the voters’ list in State in the past five years.
In 2017, when the last Panchayat Elections was held, there were 3,08,39,033 voters in the State while in 2021, the number has risen to 3,25,52,202—an addition of 17,13,169 new voters.
As many as 6,78,960 male, 10,33,300 female and 909 third gender voters have been included in the electoral roll in the past five years.
With the increase, the number of male voters has risen to 1,66,25,263, female voters to 1,59,23,884 and 3055 third gender voters in the State.
The electoral roll recorded a growth of 0.47 per cent in 2018, 2.63 per cent in 2019, 2.23 per cent in 2020 and 0.13 per cent in 2021.
In total, over 3.25 crore voters will exercise their franchise in the upcoming three-tier Panchayat Polls. Those who have attained 18 years of age as on November 1, 2021, would be included in voters’ list.
Recently, during a meeting with all Collectors and BDOs, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Aditya Prasad Padhi directed to ensure a faulty- free voters list in each ward of the Panchayats.
The District and Block level officials have been asked to take adequate precautions so that underage voters are not enrolled in the electoral roll.
In case of detection of such mischief, stringent action will be taken against ERO, Padhi warned.
In case there is abnormal increase in voters in any Block/GP, the concerned Collector has been directed to get it cross checked by deputing senior officers of the District to arrive at the correct figure.
The officials were asked to submit electoral roll both in hard and soft copy.
Each national party, State party (Odisha) will get a copy of the electoral roll free of cost while other political parties/individuals will have to pay for the cost of the electoral roll.
The Election Commission of India has updated the Assembly constituency voters’ list. The SEC will split ward-wise and the preliminary voters’ list will be displayed at the Gram Panchayat headquarters on November 16.
After addressing grievances of the voters related to the Electoral Roll, the BDOs will prepare the final voters’ list on December 4 and send it to the State Election Commission by December 6.
The Commission will publish the final list on December 14.
This exercise will be done in 29 out of 30 districts.
For the time being Balasore district has been excluded from the exercise because of delay in reservation and delimitation process by the State government in view of formation of Remuna NAC.
