All arrangements in place: Haryana CEO

| | Chandigarh
  • 0

All arrangements in place: Haryana CEO

Sunday, 22 September 2019 | PNS | Chandigarh

All necessary arrangements for the polls in Haryana has been made for  free, fair and transparent elections, Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana Anurag Agarwal said on Saturday.

Addressing a news conference here, Agarwal said that with the announcement of election programme by Election Commission of India (ECI), Model Code of Conduct has come into effect.

According to the schedule, notification would be issued on September 27 and the last date for filling nominations would be October 4, scrutiny of nomination papers would be done on October 5 and the candidates could withdraw their nominations by October 7.

Agarwal said the Election Commission, all Deputy Commissioners and Returning Officers are geared up for conducting the elections in completely transparency and ethical manner.

He said after the second revision of electoral list on August 27, this year,  the final voter list has been published as per which 1.83 crore voters including 1.07 lakh service voters would exercise their right to franchise. He said that as the process for updating the electoral roll in progress, the number of voters is expected to increase.

 The CEO said 19,442 voting centres have been established in the State including 5,511 in urban areas and 13,931 in rural areas. There are 10,288 polling locations,  adding that polling stations where the number of voters are more than 1500, request have been made to the ECI for converting these polling stations into Auxiliary polling stations. The number of such polling stations in the State is 136. He said that there are 26,329 control units and 40,615 ballot units. Besides, an arrangement of 27,996 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines has been made.

On the arrangement made in the State for conduct of the elections, he said that on the direction of ECI, Returning Officers (ROs) and Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) have been appointed in all 90 assembly segments. In all, 90 ROs and 180 AROs have been appointed in the State.

He said that apart from this adequate manpower has been made available and required number of polling parties and micro observers has been appointed.

"The Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and VVPAT have been installed in the districts as per the requirement and also first level checking have been conducted alongwith the representatives of political parties. Also, adequate quantity of stationary has been made available and forms have been got published or purchased," he added.

Agarwal said that this time the Election Commission has adopted a tough stance against the defacement of property which is an important election of Model Code of Conduct. He said that directions have been issued to all the Deputy Commissioners for carrying out different set of activities in the next 72 hours. He said that they would ensure that political slogans and photographs of leaders wherever pasted on the government buildings would be removed within 24 hours.

Similarly, in the next 24 hours,  focus would given on the removal of  slogans, posters and banners related to any politician or political parties on the public places in violation of Model Code of Conduct. In the remaining 24 hours, such publicity material would have to be removed from the private buildings. He said that the DCs would make sure that within 72 hours, the entire violations would be taken care off.

Regarding the misuse of official vehicles during elections, he said no Ministers, MLA or their representative could make use of official vehicle except for going to official work from his residence to office. Intermixing of official work into political work would not be allowed, he asserted.

The CEO said the Election Commission has activated the c-VIGIL app and anyone could upload the photographs regarding the violation of MCC on this app.

The Deputy Commissioner or CEO would verify the complaint and necessary action would be taken as per the law within 100 minutes. The complaint would be tracked and make sure that each complaint received on this portal is addressed in a prescribed time frame. Each complainant would be provided with a ticked number through which he could see the status of his complaint on his device or computer.

Agarwal said that 1950 voter helpline service is functional round the clock.

He said that in case any political party wants to release an advertisement through electronic media, he has to take prior approval through the MCMC.

The Chief Electoral Officer said 24 state level nodal officers have been appointed for the monitoring of election expenditure of the candidates. He said that the Income Tax Department has started a toll free number 1800-180-4815 and if anyone found the movement of cash, he could inform the same on this number. Immediate action would be taken on his complaint, he added.

Agarwal said that the voter turnout in 2014 Vidhan Sabha election was 76.5 per cent and to further enhance the participation of people in this festival of democracy, a one-month vigorous  campaign would be launched in the State.

In reply to a question, he said that the Haryana Defacement of Property Act does not allow any banner, slogan to be written on the private house with or without permission. Clear instruction in this regard would be given this time.

Asked about the security forces, he said that request has been made to the Election Commission of India and Union Ministry of Home Affairs for  200 companies of paramilitary forces.

On the number of youth voters, he said 3.64 lakh voters of age group of 18 to 19 years would cast their votes in the assembly elections this time.

To a query about the movement of cash, Agarwal said that a person can take cash of maximum Rs 10 lakh alongwith him and in case he is found with cash of more than Rs 10 lakh, he would be enquired about the same by a team constituted for this purpose. Similarly, in case an amount more than Rs 10 lakh is credited to his account, the bank officer concerned would give information to the Election Expenditure Observer who would inquire the matter. Agarwal advised the people that in case they are carrying more than Rs 50,000, they should take along documents showing the place as well as purpose of withdrawal.

Sunday Edition

CAA PASSPORT TO FREEDOM

24 March 2024 | Kumar Chellappan | Agenda

CHENNAI EXPRESS IN GURUGRAM

24 March 2024 | Pawan Soni | Agenda

The Way of Bengal

24 March 2024 | Shobori Ganguli | Agenda

The Pizza Philosopher

24 March 2024 | Shobori Ganguli | Agenda

Astroturf | Lord Shiva calls for all-inclusiveness

24 March 2024 | Bharat Bhushan Padmadeo | Agenda

Interconnected narrative l Forest conservation l Agriculture l Food security

24 March 2024 | BKP Sinha/ Arvind K jha | Agenda