Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), J&K, Shailendra Kumar today interacted with the representatives of recognized political parties in the State on various issues related to the conduct of Parliamentary Elections-2019 which have recently been announced by the Election Commission of India.The CEO held wide ranging discussions with the political leaders for the smooth, peaceful and transparent conduct of Parliament Elections and sought their views and suggestions to further improve things on ground to ensure larger participation of voters and to augment facilities at the Polling stations across the State.While seeking cooperation from the Political parties to ensure complete transparency in the electoral process, the CEO urged them to abide by the guidelines of the Election Commission of India with regard to the implementation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) which has been enforced with the announcement of Parliamentary Elections. He advised them to sensitize their workers, polling agents about the scope and extent of MCC and cooperate fully in strict adherence of the same. He urged them to make use of Election Commission’s App “C-Vigil” which relates to deal with the complaints with regard to the violation of MCC by any department/political party or any individual and complaints can be filed on-line which are being dealt by the Commission quickly. He also urged them to make optimal use of Suvidha App to avail on-line facilities with regard to seek any kind of permission/registration related to the election process from the election authorities. He said these facilities have been created by the Election Commission to facilitate the political parties to extend instant assistance whatever is required.
Shailendra assured the political parties of all necessary assistance related to the election process by the State Election Department and asked them to bring any difficulty to his notice. He also briefed them about some new initiatives taken by the Election Commission to ensure free, fair and transparent elections across the State. He said special arrangements have been made for the persons with disability at Polling Stations so that they don’t face any difficulty in casting their votes. Facilities of ramps, wheel chairs, palkis, and other basic minimum facilities shall be ensured at all polling stations for the voters. The CEO urged the political leaders to appoint their BLAs on priority who can help the BLOs in facilitating election related matters of the parties. He said the District Election authorities have organized training programmes for the political workers, BLAs on use of EVMs/VVPATs and other election related activities enabling them to educate the voters about the same. He also informed that new Electoral Rolls have been made available to all the parties for their information and further use. He also assured to make available the manuals of other important guidelines related to the electoral process issued by the ECI from time to time for their information and knowledge.The leaders sought some clarifications with regard to the MCC violations, election related expenditure, publicity etc from the CEO. They also suggested several measures to further improve the electoral process.Prominent among those present on the occasion included, Harshdev Singh from JKNPP, R.K.Bali from JKPDP, Rajinder Sharma from BJP, Pradeep Kumar Bali from National Conference, R.K. Thapa from BSP, Om Parkash from CPI-M and Dr. Rama Kant Khajuria from Indian National Congress.