Gudivada division gears up for Gram Panchayat Elections

Vijayawada: After successful and peaceful conduct of village panchayat elections in Vijayawada revenue division on Tuesday, the Election Commission is preparing to conduct elections in Gudivada revenue division on February 13.

Polling will be held in nine mandals of Gudivada revenue division from 6.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. and the voters will elect sarpanches for 175 village panchayats. Of the total 211 village panchayats in Gudivada revenue division, 36 candidates were elected unanimously. Now, preparations are underway for the election of 175 sarpanches.

A total of 1968 panchayat wards are in the revenue division. Of the total, 960 candidates were elected unanimously. Now the polling will be held to elect 1025 ward members. The Election Commission has conducted training classes to stage 1 and stage 2 officers, presiding officers, micro observers in Gudivada revenue division.

The officials identified the sensitive and hyper-sensitive villages and been planning to deploy adequate police force for the peaceful conduct of elections. Krishna district Collector Md Imtiaz on Wednesday conducted a review meeting with the police officers, mandal development officers, tahsildars and special officers at the municipal office in Gudivada and explained the duties and responsibilities of the elections staff.

He said micro observers are appointed in the problematic areas and added that arrangements are underway for the webcasting and video shooting of election process in the revenue division. He instructed the mandal development officers to arrange facilities to the polling staff and make other arrangements at the polling stations. He said the decision of the Returning Officer will be final if any problem arises on the day of polling. Joint Collector K Madhavi Latha said that the remuneration to the polling staff should be given as per the government orders.

He asked the officials to follow the Election rules without fail. Additional Superintendent of Police Malika Garg said the police have identified the sensitive and hypersensitive villages and taking measures to ensure peaceful conduct of polls. Officials from Revenue, Panchayat Raj and other departments participated in the meeting.