Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Shantmanu today visited Anantnag to take stock of the arrangements put in place for conduct of Bye-elections to Anantnag Assembly Constituency on June 22, 2016.The CEO chaired a meeting of officers and got first hand appraisal of the poll preparedness. He called for implementing the comprehensive plan for free, fair and transparent conduct of polls, saying that everything should go as per the guidelines and directions of Election Commission of India. He stressed on the officers to follow the procedures formulated by Election Commission of India while dealing with any issue related to the bye-elections. He also asked them to keep a strict vigil on the activities that take place in the territorial jurisdiction of the district and ensure proper implementation and compliance of the Model Code of Conduct.The Chief Electoral Officer called for giving wide publicity of and polling stations whose name and locations have been changed for the convenience of the voters.
He also asked the concerned to workout strategy for providing help to infirm voters.Mr. Shantmanu urged upon the RO and AROs to put extra efforts to make the bye-election a success with no scope of error. Directing the nodal officers, he asked them to follow the procedures and report any discrepancy well in time to DEO or the Observers so that same can be removed before the voting commences.Meanwhile, Mr. Shantmanu inspected strong rooms and counting halls.Giving brief account of preparations made by the administration for the conduct of bye-elections of Assembly Constituency Anantnag, the District Election Officer briefed about the plans and strategies formulated for smooth conduct of the bye-polls. He said that adequate arrangements have been put in place at all the designated places involved with the election process including polling booths, nodal offices, strong rooms and counting halls. He said that Police has ensured adequate deployment of police personnel on polling booths, strong rooms and counting halls. He said that the Transport Department has also been asked to provide adequate number of vehicles to ferry poll parties. The officers and officials having polling experience have been assigned election related duties to ensure transparent and error free election, he added.The meeting was informed that 102 polling stations have been setup at 61 designated locations across the constituency.
He said that 15 polling stations have been proposed to be setup as model polling stations with extra facilities. The webcasting of 20 polling stations and videography of 10 polling station would also be done.The Meeting was informed that there are 85608 registered voters in the Constituency. As many as 114 postal ballots have been dispatched, of which 40 postal ballots to migrants at Udhampur and Jammu, 10 at Delhi, 57 to service voters and 7 to detainees and under trials.
It was given out in the meeting that 2017 employees were imparted initial training, while the services of only 408 would be required for elections. Adequate number of EVMs have already been put in order, the meeting was told.Elaborating the Security arrangement, the SSP informed that adequate security arrangements have been put in place.It is pertinent to mention here that the counting of votes would be held on June25, at 8 amDistrict Election Officer, Dr. Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, ADCs Anantnag, Mr. Muhammad Younis Malik, and Mr. Sheikh Ghulam Hassan, SSP Anantnag, Mr. Abdul Jabbar, Returning Officer, ARO and Nodal Officers attended the meeting.