Odisha govt orders review of voter deletions

Bhubaneswar: Odisha govt has ordered an immediate review of voter deletions after receiving complaints of names being wrongly removed from the electoral rolls during the elector mapping process.

According to the home (elections) department, around 9.8 lakh deletions have been carried out so far, but several cases were flagged where names were deleted without proper verification.In response, nearly two lakh Form-7 applications received after April 2 have been put on hold. The additional chief electoral officer has directed all electoral registration officers to reverify cases rigorously, mandating physical verification for at least 50% of recent applications and strict adherence to statutory procedures. The department has also instructed that voters whose names were wrongly deleted be immediately added to the electoral rolls.

All complaints received through official channels must be thoroughly examined. The directive has been marked as most urgent, with roll updates to resume only after certification of due verification.