Chief Electoral Officer K. Ravi Kumar told all the district election officials of the state to run a special campaign from 20th to 30th March 2024, especially in the urban areas, through Voter Awareness Forum to make the voters aware about the exercise of their franchise and ethical voting. If voters do not exercise their right to vote due to any particular inconvenience, then motivate them to vote by getting such reasons resolved immediately.
He said that under Section 135B of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, a provision of paid leave has been made for the employees of all government/non-government/business institutions to exercise their franchise. The Election Commission of India has made a provision to set up Voter Awareness Forum in every institution for voter awareness. If you organize a Voter Awareness Forum in any government/non-government/private or commercial institution, make it operational immediately.
If the percentage of voting in a particular place has been low in the previous elections, then hold a meeting with the nodal officials of the Voter Awareness Forum of the nearby voters and get feedback from them and on the basis of the feedback received, the voters of that area should be encouraged to exercise their franchise. If any inconvenience is possible, ensure that it is resolved immediately. Today, through video conferencing from his office, he was reviewing the preparations for the Lok Sabha elections in various districts with all the district election officials of the state.
He said that all the preparations for voting through postal ballot should be completed well in advance, so that the voters exercising their franchise through postal ballot do not face any kind of problem in voting. For this, the concerned Assistant Returning Officer will ensure that all his concerned officers/employees are compulsorily trained in all the technical aspects of the entire process of voting through postal ballot of the Election Commission of India.
Apart from this, issues like district wise vehicle management for elections, compliance with model code of conduct, preparation of counting centres, reach of voter awareness programs etc. were also thoroughly reviewed.
During this, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Sandeep Singh, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Neha Arora, OSD Geeta Choubey, Joint Chief Electoral Officer Subodh Kumar and officials of the Chief Electoral Officer's office were present.
Meanwhile, Kumar said that for the first time in the state, the assembly by-election in Gandey is being held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha election. All political parties are expected to make this great festival of democracy successful by playing their important role in the clean, fair, fear-free and error-free conduct of these elections.
Highlighting the important provisions related to elections, he said that they should compulsorily inform each of their workers about the related provisions of the Election Commission of India so that due to lack of information, they do not unknowingly violate the related provisions of the Election Commission of India. Found. He was addressing a workshop organized for the representatives of recognized political parties in connection with the Lok Sabha General Election 2024 and 31-Gandey Assembly by-election in the conference room of his office today.
On this occasion, while providing copies of the "Handbook for Political Parties" issued by the Election Commission of India to the representatives of all political parties, he said that all the guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India related to political parties related to elections have been compiled in it. Has gone. He said that this manual should be studied seriously so that active cooperation of all political parties can be achieved in conducting clean and fair elections.
