ECI delegation reviews poll preparedness in Haryana ahead of Assembly elections

Chandigarh (Haryana) [India], September 24 (ANI): A delegation of the Election Commission of India reviewed the poll preparedness in Haryana on Monday ahead of the assembly elections slated to be held on October 5.

According to an official statement, the delegation, which included Deputy Election Commissioner Hridesh Kumar, Secretary KP Singh, Principal Secretary Avinash Kumar and SB Joshi, held a meeting with the officials in Chandigarh.

Divisional Commissioners, IG Police Range, Deputy Commissioners-cum-DEOs, Police Commissioners and SPs, MC Commissioner, General Observers, Police Observers and Expenditure Observers from 11 districts attended the meeting. Haryana’s Chief Electoral Officer, Pankaj Agarwal and State Police Nodal Officer, Saurabh Singh, were also present at the meeting.

As per the statement, the commission directed the officials to ensure the conduct of free and fair elections by maintaining a good law and order situation and stressed maintaining 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 a conducive environment to encourage voter 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, the release mentioned.

In the meeting, Deputy Election Commissioner Hirdesh Kumar reviewed the marking of electoral rolls, the time plan for preparing ASD (absentee, shifted, duplicate or dead) lists, the distribution of voter slips, the Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) distribution, and addressing any major complaint related to electoral rolls, the statement added.

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 compliance with this task. The marked copy of voter 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 all polling stations are fully equipped with the necessary facilities.

Kumar 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 station. 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. At the same time, the secrecy of voting should not be compromised.

Further, the statement said that 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.

Following the briefing, 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, it mentioned.

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 coordination with police of the neighbouring states.

Kumar instructed the concerned officials to establish mirror checkpoints in interstate districts along the borders with neighbouring states, in accordance with the police manual.

According to the statement, the team noticed that the seizures done so far are not satisfactory. It emphasised to rework the strategy and monitor the workings of different flying squad surveillance teams and static surveillance teams. Faridabad, Sonipat and Gurugram districts 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 commission at the same time cautioned not to cause unnecessary public inconvenience while performing these duties. For monitoring the cash flow, daily bank reports have 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 minimised. The team reviewed the preparations related to counting centres, postal ballots, and the training of polling staff. District election officers provided updates on these issues.

Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal said that for home voting, provisions will be made for PwD voters and voters over the age of 85 under the supervision of the RO, with videography of the process. He added that training for election officials must be ensured, and other requirements, such as transportation facilities for PwD voters and voters over 85 years of age, should be provided wherever necessary.

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 end 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, the release added.

Earlier, a delegation led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar during its visit in Haryana on August 12 and 13 had taken the review of the administrative, logistics, law and order, and election-related arrangements with the Chief Electoral Officer and State Police Nodal Officer.