In order to take stock of the preparations for Lok Sabha elections 2024, Chief Electoral Officer, Jharkhand, K. Ravi Kumar reached Jamshedpur on Wednesday. During this, he took information from District Election Officer Ananya Mittal about the preparations being made in East Singhbhum district in view of the Lok Sabha elections 2024.
The CEO stressed on the availability of basic facilities in the polling stations and directed to take special care of the facilities of the disabled and elderly voters. Also, instructions were given to make adequate arrangements for sheds, drinking water, toilets, sitting chairs etc. in the polling stations for all the voters in view of the heat and sunlight.
Kumar, during his field visit, observed the preparations made at Gandhi Ashram polling centre, community hall located at New Baradwari in the urban area. He took information about Absent, Shifted, Death Voter (ASD) from AERO and BLO. On the day of voting, detailed information was obtained regarding seating arrangement, voting compartment, preparation for home voting, name registration of new voters and other points.
On the occasion, he directed the officials to ensure that no voter faces any kind of inconvenience in the polling station, apart from this, he also directed for construction of ramp as per the standards for the disabled, walk foot mark signage for blind voters etc so that they do not face any problem in getting drinking water and toilet.
During this, District Election Officer cum Deputy Commissioner East Singhbhum Ananya Mittal, Deputy Development Commissioner Manish Kumar, District Supply Officer Salman Zafar Khijri, District Planning Officer Arun Dwivedi, Deputy Election Officer Priyanka Singh, District Public Relations Officer Panchanan Oraon, Municipal Corporation Engineer and others were present.
Kumar also inspected Primary School-Ulihatu Booth No. 16, Government Middle School, under Chaibasa Assembly Constituency, under Singhbhum Lok Sabha constituency. Surprise inspection was conducted at Vidyalaya-Sindri booth number-10,11,12, Municipal Bungalow Middle School-Chaibasa booth number-96, 97 and Shraddhanand Girls Middle School-Badi Bazar booth number-126,127 and 128.
During the inspection, the CEO took a point-wise review of the minimum facilities required at the polling stations, such as toilets, running water, drinking water, electricity, charging sockets and other electrical equipment, availability of furniture etc. In this sequence, apart from the updated status of new Form-6 received from the BLO present at the polling station, information was obtained on absentee voters, disabled voters, booth awareness group and various other points in the voter list. During the inspection, the Chief Electoral Officer gave instructions to immediately rectify the deficiencies seen at the polling stations.
A review meeting was held under the chairmanship of Kuldeep Choudhary in the meeting room of the Collectorate and the nodal officers of all the cells, He ensured timely completion of all the preparations related to the elections, including provision of basic facilities in 100% polling stations and availability of ramps, running water, electricity, fans, furniture, mobile charge sockets etc. even at the polling stations located in remote areas. Apart from this, instructions were given to ensure arrangements for support personnel and vehicles etc. to transport elderly and disabled voters to the booth.
