Bhubaneswar: The State Election Commission (SEC), Odisha has started the process for electoral roll revision for the much awaited election to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in the state.
Even though the tenure of elected councils of the ULBs in the state has expired since 2018, the election has not been conducted due to various reasons.
The delimitation of wards and reservation of seats in the ULBs have been completed. The polls will be held in three municipal corporations — Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur, 48 municipalities and 59 notified area councils (NACs).
Of the total 1,756 wards, 668 wards are unreserved while 122 are reserved for SCs, 171 for SC women, 49 for STs and 133 for ST women. A total of 613 wards have been reserved for women.
The assembly electoral roll as on January 1, 2022 and published on January 5, 2022 by the Election Commission of India will be adopted for preparation of ward-wise electoral roll and there will be no qualifying date for enrollment of new voters as the electoral roll has been very recently published, said State Election Commissioner Aditya Prasad Padhi.
Padhi said that the Commission will soon carry out revision of the electoral roll. He said that the draft electoral roll will be published after ward-wise splitting. For the first time, both soft and hard copies of the draft will be shared with the national and State-level political parties.
The primary voter list will be published on February 10 and objections will be invited for six days between February 11 and 16. The final electoral roll will be published on February 24 and submitted to SEC after four days on February 28, he informed.
There will be no addition of new voters to the ECI list. However, the names of voters that may go missing during the preparation of ward-wise electoral rolls for the ULB polls can be restored, the Commissioner stated.
Correction is also allowed if the name of a voter from a particular ward is mistakenly added in another ward, he added.
(IANS)
Kalinga AI