1.2cr voters receive form for SIR

Bhubaneswar: Under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) programme, enumeration forms have been distributed to more than one crore of the total voters in the state within six days of the start of this exercise to make the voter list more transparent, updated and error-free, office of the chief electoral officer (CEO), Odisha, said this on Thursday.According to the information from the CEO’s office, forms for enumeration have been given to 30.64% of the total voters, which is 1.2 crore voters in the state.As many as 45,255 booth-level officers (BLOs) have been deployed across the state to ensure the complete success of this independent campaign. BLOs are visiting every household in both urban and rural areas, including tribal and remote regions, to distribute enumeration forms and collect information, official sources said.During the house-to-house enumeration, each voter is provided with two preprinted enumeration forms (Annex-III). After filling out the forms, the BLO retains one copy and returns the second copy to the voter as a receipt or acknowledgement after signing it. Voters are advised to keep this acknowledgement for future reference, said an official statement issued by CEO office.A widespread public awareness campaign is being launched to reach every citizen, from villages to cities. To raise awareness among citizens, awareness vehicles are touring villages in various districts, and in cities, microphones, hoardings, LED screens and social media are being used to engage the youth, said the official statement.In rural areas, traditional folk arts, pala, daskathia and dengurapita are being used to disseminate information. Speech, drawing and rangoli competitions are being organised to encourage new and young voters to register.The administration has clarified that no additional documents are being collected from voters to facilitate this enumeration process. Additionally, voters can download the forms from the Election Commission's official website, fill in the information and upload them themselves if they wish.To coordinate and streamline the campaign, 33,026 booth level agents (BLAs) appointed by various political parties are also cooperating with BLOs at the field level. The CEO office and district administrations are taking all necessary measures to ensure that no eligible voter in the state is left out of this process, said the official statement.