Prakasam District Collector Dr Pola Bhaskara gears up for local body elections

Ongole: Prakasam Collector Dr Pola Bhaskara announced that the district administration is ready to conduct the local body elections as per the instructions of the State Election Commission.

Speaking at a press conference at the Collectorate along with District, the Collector announced that the elections for 772 MPTCs and 56 ZPTCs will be held on March 21. He said that the returning officers will issue the election notification on March 9 and informed that as per the schedule announced by the Election Commission, the MPTC candidates should submit their nominations to the returning officers, the MPDOs in the mandals while the ZPTC candidates should submit their nominations to the ZP CEO. He said that the ROs would accept the nominations from 10.30 am to 05.00 pm from March 9 to 11 and the nominations received would be scrutinised on March 12.

He informed that the MPTC candidates whose nominations are rejected could appeal to the RDOs while the ZPTC candidates appeal to the Collector on March 13 and the officials will announce the decision on the appeals by 01.00 pm on March 14. The contesting candidates can withdraw nominations from 01.00 pm to 03.00 pm on the same day, he said.

The Collector announced that the candidates can campaign from March 15 to 19 but should close the canvassing by 05.00 pm on the last day. He said the election will be held in ballot paper mode and the election material and staff would be transported to their places on March 20. He announced the polling will be conducted from 07.00 am to 05.00 pm on March 21 and the counting and announcement of results will be done on March 24. He said there were 21,40,387 voters to exercise their franchise in 2,690 polling booths for the local bodies election in the district. He informed that they were appointing 3,000 polling officers, 16,000 poll staff for the smooth conduct of the election and kept another 26,000 staff in reserve for the same. He said that the municipal elections will be conducted in one municipal corporation, 3 municipalities and 4 nagara panchayats in the district and the administration was ready to conduct the election for 237 urban wards in 667 polling centres.

Bhaskara appealed to the contesting candidates and political party representatives to respect the model code of conduct for peaceful conduct of election and requested the cooperation of parties and media for the same. He said that they have appointed 12 officials who had the experience in conducting elections earlier as the special officers for the 12 constituencies in the district.