General, Police Observer chair high-level meeting on election preparedness in 4-Udhampur PC

KATHUA, MARCH 29: General Observer, 4- Udhampur Parliamentary Constituency (PC) Dheeraj Kumar, along with Police Observer, Daljeet Singh today convened a meeting with district election officers, SSPs and AROs of 4 Udhampur PC here in the VC room of DC office complex.

Returning Officer, Udhampur Parliamentary Constituency, Dr Rakesh Minhas (District Election Officer Kathua); SSP Kathua, Shivdeep Singh Jamwal; ARO Hiranagar, ARO Kathua, ARO Jasrota, ADC Kathua attended the meeting.

DEO Udhampur, Saloni Rai; DEO Doda, Harvinder Singh; DEO Kishtwar, Devansh Yadav; DEO Ramban, Basheer-ul-Haq Chaudhary; SSP Udhampur Joginder Singh; SSP Doda Javid Iqbal and SSP Ramban Anuj Kumar joined the meeting virtually.

While taking first hand appraisal of the topography and demography from the concerned District Election Officers, the Observers discussed in length  key aspects of the training, security and transport plans. They laid  stress on devising a workable plan keeping in mind the local topographical constraints.

General Observer, Dheeraj Kumar underlined the  role of sector Magistrates in handling exigencies especially related to EVMs malfunction or for any other reasons and adopting swift procedures to address the issues in real time basis. He called upon the need for visiting of polling stations by sector Magistrate before the polling dates to get them well versed with the locations.

Regarding the communication plan, the general observer opined that the dry run of all adopted communication channels in advance can help in making the plan robust and workable.

The meeting also deliberated the need of early preparedness in establishing minimum assured facilities in polling stations, mapping and deployment of polling staff and security personnels besides focusing on achieving timely enrolment of service voters so as to ensure they can cast their vote while discharging their duties.

Later, as part of ongoing SVEEP campaign, the Kathua Election Cell gets creative and in a ceremonial gesture, the Observers, Returning Officer, AROs and Nodal officers unveiled the attractive Voter Invitation Card inspired by the marriage cards to invite voters to participate in the celebration of democracy by casting their vote on April 19, 2024.