ECI reviews preparations for Haryana Assembly elections

Gurugram, Sep 24 (IANS) To review the steps and measures taken on the directions of the Election Commission of India (ECI), a team of senior officials from the poll panel held a meeting with Divisional Commissioners, IG Police range, Deputy Commissioners-cum-DEOs, Police Commissioners, SPs, among other key officials from 11 districts regarding preparedness for the Haryana Assembly elections, here on Monday.

The ECI team included Deputy Election Commissioner Hridesh Kumar; Secretary, KP Singh; Principal Secretary, Avinash Kumar and SB Joshi. The meeting was held in the presence of Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal and State Police Nodal Officer, Saurabh Singh.

The ECI led by Rajiv Kumar, Chief Election Commissioner had then taken the review of the administrative, logistics, law and order, and election-related arrangements with the Chief Electoral Officer and State Police Nodal Officer.

The commission had directed to ensure conduct of free and fair elections by maintaining good law and order situation. It had stressed to maintain good health of the electoral roll with the removal of dead and shifted voters.

Further, it directed to provide minimum assured facility at the pooling booths along with conducive environment to encourage voters turnout. DEOs were directed to be equally accessible to all the political parties and to resolve promptly the grievances related to various election related activities.

During the meeting Hirdesh Kumar, Deputy Election Commissioner reviewed the marking of electoral rolls, time plan for preparing ASD (Absentee, shifted, Duplicate or Dead) lists, distribution of voter slips, Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) distribution and addressing any major complaint related to electoral rolls.

He stated that the printing of pending EPIC cards should be pursued with the printer and the EPIC cards should be distributed by September 30. The BLOs can be engaged for ensuring the compliance of this task. The marked copy of voters lists should be prepared as per the instructions. Also the copies of the electoral rolls handed over to the candidates should match with the marked electoral rolls.

The team emphasised the importance of ensuring that all polling stations are fully equipped with the necessary facilities.

He instructed District Commissioners-cum-DEOs and SPs to personally inspect polling stations to verify the availability of essential facilities. The Commission emphasised that the Voter Facilitation Booths should be set up by the BLOs at each polling stations. Proper sitting arrangements have to be made to facilitate the voters standing in queues.

The team cited the need for webcasting from all polling stations. For ensuring better monitoring, cameras of high resolution should be used and they should be positioned in a way that these cover the polling stations properly for effective surveillance.

The DEOs briefed the Election Commission regarding the setup of special model polling booths. These include 'pink booths' staffed entirely by women employees, youth employees managed booths, and booths overseen by persons with disabilities (PwD) employees.

After gathering information from all the officials, instructions were given to ensure proper arrangements for the accommodation and meals of the polling parties. Additionally, appropriate provisions for healthcare services should also be made.

The police authorities briefed about the security arrangements for ensuring a good law and order situation. The team expressed its satisfaction over the deployment of the central forces and other security arrangements.

However, it stressed immediate action for better surveillance of the border areas in co-ordination with police of the neighbouring states. He instructed the concerned officials to establish mirror checkpoints in interstate districts along the borders with neighboring states, in accordance with the police manual.

The team noticed that the seizures done so far are not satisfactory. It emphasised to rework the strategy, monitor the working of different Flying Squad Surveillance Teams and Static Surveillance Teams.

Faridabad, Sonipat and Gurugram district were directed to make special efforts regarding this. The police officers assured that effective steps would be taken to increase surveillance and enhance seizures.

The ECI at the same time cautioned not to cause unnecessary public inconvenience while performing these duties. For monitoring the cash flow daily bank reports has to be scrutinised at the DEO level by placing some experienced persons on the task.

The Commission also cautioned that while performing these duties, inconvenience to the public should be minimized. The team reviewed the preparations related to counting centers, postal ballots, and the training of polling staff. District election officers provided updates on these issues.

The team further reiterated that maximum efforts should be made at both the local and state levels to increase voter turnout. The meeting also covered information about polling stations, theme polling stations, queue management, and counting arrangements. They reviewed the plans from each district aimed at increasing voter percentage.

At the conclusion of the meeting, they emphasised that all efforts should be made to ensure free and fair elections. The districts included in the meeting were Faridabad, Nuh, Palwal, Gurugram, Mahendragarh, Rewari, Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Jhajjar, Rohtak, and Sonipat.

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