EC team to visit Telangana again soon

​Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India (ECI) will embark on second round visit in few days to Telangana to ascertain the State preparedness at ground level for the conduct of the early elections. 

This time, the EC officials will visit the districts to review the arrangements mainly the storage of EVMs and VVPATS (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) and the functioning of the official mechanism from Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to Returning Officers (ROs). 

Addressing the media, State Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar said the EC official team which conducted first visit to the State recently expressed happiness over the State preparedness for the conduct of elections which has to be held within six months of the dissolution of the State Assembly.

Dispatchment of the EVMs to all districts was already taken up and it will be completed by September 20. The EC was tracking the movement of the voting machines through EVM tracking system and also evaluating the official process continuously from Delhi.  It required 52,100 EVM, 41,000 control units and 44,000 VVPATs. 

The total number of polling booths in the State are 37,574. Booth Level Officer (BLOs) were already deployed to monitor the enrolment of the new voters. Training for the appointed AROs (Assistant Returning Officers) and Returning Officers (ROs) soon.

The official said that cybercrime wing of the State police department was entrusted to monitor the content posted on social media. 

Special security measures will be taken in the extremist infested 7 districts in coordination with State police and central security forces. The election manifestos being prepared by the political parties will also be analysed. Once the Commission issues election notification, model code of conduct will be in the force in the entire State.