Vijayawada: Officials told to be ready for civic polls

Vijayawada: The State Election Commissioner N Ramesh Kumar, addressing the District Collectors, Superintendents of Police and other district officials through a videoconference here on Friday, asked them to be ready to conduct the elections to the local bodies as per the schedule.

He said that the District Collectors should follow the rules and guidelines in conducting the elections. Expressing his happiness over the performance of the District Collectors in implementing the rules to conduct the elections transparently and as per guidelines, he said that the officials should keep in mind important points.

The officials should concentrate on updating of voter lists and printing, ballot boxes, returning officers, assistant returning officers, electoral officers and assistant electoral officers in the municipal corporation limits, selection of election staff and micro observers, getting election material ready, ballot paper printing and others.

He said that the period from the day of the notification to the counting of votes had been reduced from 27 days to 20 days which would help implement the election code of conduct.

Ramesh Kumar said that elections to the 13,000 village panchayats would be conducted in three phases.

The district collectors with the coordination and cooperation of the superintendents of police should prepare a plan of action to implement code of conduct and avoid violence during the polling.

If the elections to the ZPTC and MPTC are also conducted simultaneously the officials need to take extra precautions to procure election material, he said.

Everyone should follow the guidelines without fail, he asserted asking the officials to conduct necessary training to the election staff. Joint collector-2 should be appointed as nodal officers, he added.

Municipal administration secretary J Syamala Rao said that elections to the 109 municipalities would be conducted. Separate guidelines would be issued to conduct elections to the newly formed ten municipalities, he added.

Commissioner and director of Municipal Administration GSRKR Vijay Kumar addressing the officials from Visakhapatnam said appointment of nodal officers is important for effective conduct of elections.