All set for local polls after general elections

Vikarabad: The State Election Commission is getting ready to conduct local body polls immediately after the Lok Sabha elections. Hence, election of territorial constituency members of the Zilla Parishad and Mandal Parishad will be held in two phases as per revenue divisions.

The ROs and other staff were appointed for this process. The polling stations will be identified, and the final list will be released on April 20. The number of territorial voters has been already identified. The Election Commission is also contemplating to hold the election in the second week of May.

The State Election Commissioner Nagi Reddy conducted a video conference with the district Panchayat officers recently. The district administration was advised to be ready for local elections and announced the schedule would be released on April 20. They are advised to focus on providing the infrastructure.

Earlier, elections for the ZPTC and MPTC were held on the same day. This time it is decided that they should be conducted in a phased manner. The Panchayat Raj administration officials discussed the issue of two district collectors. The division where first phase of elections would be conducted was finalised. The announcement will come after the Lok Sabha elections are over. According to the current decision, elections will be held divisions wise.

Appointment of Returning Officers for the elections of ZPTC and MPTC has been completed. The nominations of the ZPTC and MPTC members will be accepted in Mandal centres. Each mandal has one ZPTC and RO. Three MPTCs have an RO.

There are 18 ZPTC seats in the district and two ROs are kept in reserve. Officials are arranging training for the staff soon. Five juniors were selected from the district. They will be trained in Hyderabad. They will come to the district and train other staff.

Accepting nominations, allocation of symbols, counting of polling votes and other issues are to be taken up by them. ZPTC and MPTC elections will take place on ballot mode. The ballot boxes are arranged for this election. The ballot boxes used in the Panchayat Elections will be used for this purpose. There are 1,104 polling stations in 18 mandals. There are 3,450 ballot boxes available till now.

Though the election will take place in two phases, counting of votes will be done on a single day. After the second phase of election, the date of counting will be decided. Counting will be done in the constituencies. The authorities have already identified the buildings to hold counting. Counting will be held in four Mandals in Parigi, three mandals in Kondangal, four mandals in Tandur and seven mandals in Vikarabad.