The Deputy Election Commissioner of India Alok Shukla today said that the ECI has made comprehensive arrangements for conduct of peacful, free and fair Lok Sabha elections in Punjab on April 30.Presiding over a marathon meeting in which Chief Electoral Officer V.K.Singh, Additional CEO Supreet Singh Gulati, ADGP/ Elections Mr. C.S.R.Reddy, Zonal IGs , Range DIGs , DEOs and SSPs here, Mr Shukla said that crucial arrangements like security, polling staff, observers etc have already been made fool proof in the state and the ECI has set the target to increase vote percentage at least up to 10 % in Punjab from 70 % in 2009 Lok Sabha polls. He said that the CEO office has been successfully motivating the voters to cast their votes by adopting innovative measures like an appreciation letter to all first time voters and incentives on food/stay in hotels etc in cities across the state.
Emphasizing the need to set up Model polling stations in the state, Mr. Shukla asked the DEOs to ensure the facility of drinking water, wheel chairs for specially abled persons, sheds and queue management etc. He said that every sensitive polling station in the state should be covered by either web casting, video-graphy or Micro Observer for smooth conduct of polling. To ensure the casting of vote of all eligible voters, he asked the officials to ensure that the BLO hould take the receipt of voting slips from voters after handing over the slip to them.Addressing the Police Officials Mr. Shukla said that demand of security personnel should be made only according to the realistic need and the ECI would provide the sufficient security staff for all Parliamentary Constituencies.
Talking about the deployment of Paramilitary forces in the state, the Deputy ECI clarified that these forces should only be used for election duty and not for law and order maintenance. He has also instructed the DEOs to personally monitor the training of polling staff. Later talking to media persons, he said that presently 35 companies of Paramilitary forces have reached in the state and remaining 147 companies would report by April 26. Replying a query about the announcement of Sensitive and Hyper Sensitive Parliamentary Constituencies in the state, he said that it would be decided on the reports of DEOs and Observers. Talking about the distribution of Atta-Dal in the state, he said that ECI has already made it clear that there was no ban on the distribution of Atta-Dal but it should only be distributed by the Ration Depots and not by the Political persons or government officials.