Gangtok DC chairs election preparedness meeting

GANGTOK, (IPR): Tushar Nikhare, district collector-cum-DEO Gangtok, chaired a meeting for rationalization of polling stations under Gangtok district today at the conference hall of Gangtok District Zilla Bhawan.

Accompanying the district collector were senior SP Tenzing Loden Lepcha, Gangtok ADC Rohan Agawane, ADC (HQ) Milan Rai, SDMs Pari Bishnoi and GL Meena, District Election Cell under secretary D.M. Rasaily, AEROs, BLOs and representatives of political parties.

The primary aim of the meeting was to check the preparedness of polling stations in Gangtok district by involving BLOs and the representatives from political parties.

During the meeting, the political parties raised issue regarding locations of certain polling stations in Upper Tadong and Arithang Assembly constituencies which may cause inconvenience to the voters on poll day. The DC asked the concerned Returning Officers to visit the polling stations along with representatives of political parties and submit a report to him within a week regarding rationalization of those polling stations. That report will be further sent to Election Commission of India through CEO Office for approval and all the rationalisation proposals will be incorporated only if approved by ECI.

During the meeting, the DC engaged with the BLOs from Gangtok district, discussing the number of voters in each polling station to ensure that none of the polling stations has more than 1500 voters. Further, he enquired about the arrangements for assured minimum facilities (AMFs) for the convenience of voters on poll day. He informed the political parties that the list of Sector Magistrates appointed for the district will be shared with them and soon the Sector Magistrates will be making a visit to all polling stations to check status of AMFs.

Nikhare informed the attendees about ‘absentee voters’, the new category of voters introduced by ECI which consists of voters more than 80 years of age and PwD voters. These voters will have the option of voting through postal ballot from their home in the presence of the polling party from the office of DEO and representatives of political parties. He also explained the process of deletion of voters from the voter list to BLOs as well as to political parties and urged political parties to submit a list of such voters to DEO if such cases have been missed out.

Additionally, the political parties were notified that postal ballot voting for the staff engaged in poll day duty would take place at a facilitation centre, which would be set up at the training centre and prior intimation about the same would be given to voters and representatives of political parties about such facilitation centre. All the staff voting through postal ballot would compulsorily have to vote through facilitation centre only, as per new ECI norms.

The DC urged political parties to appoint booth-level agents at the earliest to ensure that the political parties are able to raise any other issue with DEO well in advance before the elections. HE also informed them the locations for pasting banners, hoardings and for conducting political meetings will be identified by the respective ROs within their jurisdiction soon and then the list of all those locations will be shared with all the political parties.

Tenzing Loden Lepcha, in his briefing, requested political parties to inform the police about public functions and rallies well in advance of the actual event. He stipulated that only one representative per party should request such permits. He cautioned political parties against providing food to voters near polling booths as it may lead to over-crowding.