Odisha SIR: 20 lakh deletions in draft voter list; Oppn flags exclusion over 'minor anomalies'

📌 Summary:

• Draft electoral rolls published after Odisha's month-long door-to-door Special Intensive Revision (SIR): nearly 20.14 lakh voters' names identified for deletion; total electors fall from 3.33 crore to 3.13 crore (1.60 crore male, 1.53 crore female)

• Deletion breakdown: 8.32 lakh deceased; 10.07 lakh permanently shifted or absent; 1.58 lakh enrolled in multiple places

• Opposition BJD's objection: over 10,000 deletions each in 75 of 147 Assembly constituencies; many genuine names excluded over "minor anomalies" that must be restored during claims and objections

• Process safeguards: claims and objections open until September 2; final roll on September 6; excluded voters can file Form 6 (with declaration) before the booth-level officer or online; no deletion without notice and a speaking order by the ERO/AERO; appeals lie to the District Collector and then the CEO under the Representation of the People Act, 1951

• Machinery: 147 EROs and 994 assistant EROs deployed; 10 senior IAS officers appointed as voter-list observers

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 Polity — electoral roll revision, ECI processes, RPA 1951 safeguards, inclusion-vs-purity debate in voter lists

📝 Prelims Facts:

• SIR = Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls conducted by the ECI
• Form 6 — application for inclusion of name in the electoral roll
• Appeals against deletion: District Collector → Chief Electoral Officer, under the RPA, 1951
• Odisha: 147 Assembly constituencies

🔑 Key Term: Special Intensive Revision (SIR) — an ECI exercise involving door-to-door enumeration to purify electoral rolls by removing dead, shifted and duplicate voters, followed by a statutory claims-and-objections window.