Officials directed to get ready for municipal polls

 Vikarabad: State Election Commission (SEC) is planning to conduct municipal elections after completion of Lok Sabha polls. There are four municipalities in the district. Among them Vikarabad and Tandur are old municipalities, whereas Parigi, Kodangal are the new ones. 

Elections to Tandur and Vikarabad civic bodies were conducted in 2014 march and the newly elected administration had taken oath in May second week. 
In order to complete the polls within the time, the State Election Commission has set up municipal elections authority and election cell.

Meanwhile, officials completed the wards division process in the newly formed municipalities as per the 2011 Census. Officials merged outskirts villages into the wards but didn’t create new wards. The villagers of seven merged villages approached the court for demerging of their villages from the municipality. These villages have not participated in recent panchayat elections also. Officials would take necessary measures after the court verdict. The survey, which intends to identify SC, ST, BC, women voters in the four municipalities, is completed.

The SEC has directed the Commissioners to be ready for municipal elections at any time. It them to send the details pertaining to municipal elections before February 25. It also asked the commissioners to frame the list of returning officers and assistant returning officers. They were also asked to prepare the voter lists ward-wise. SEC wants identification of polling centers and said the officials check whether sufficient amenities are provided in them. It advised the commissioners to arrange special rooms for distribution of polling accessories, reception room, and strong room.

SEC has decided to use EVMs in municipal elections. As per the directives of apex court, VVPATs implementation is mandatory in the elections. If sufficient VVPATs will not be provided until the time of elections, election officials want to conduct elections with ballot papers.