Anantapur: Central forces not needed for polls, says SEC

Anantapur: State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar on Friday said he would conduct the panchayat elections with the help of state government personnel and had no intention to deploy Central forces.

The SEC as part of his Rayalaseema districts tour, first visited the district to review arrangements for the local body elections here on Friday. After conducting a review meeting with District Collector Gandham Chandrudu and SP B Sathya Yesubabu over the election arrangements in the district, the SEC said that he visited Anantapur first as it stands first alphabetically.

Ramesh Kumar said "These elections will happen only with state personnel, we don't have any intention to use Central forces. We have complete faith in the state government personnel who are enough to efficiently conduct the elections."

In the first phase of the elections for which nominations began on Friday, Kadiri revenue division and 12 'mandalams' are going to the polls on February 9 in the district.

Amadagur, Bukkapatnam, Gandlapenta, Kadiri, Kothacheruvu, NP Kunta, Nallacheruvu, Nallamada, Obuladevaracheruvu, Puttaparthi, Talupula and Tanakal will go to polls on February 9.

Kumar congratulated Chandrudu and Yesubabu for making all the necessary arrangements without requiring him to give any special directives.

However, he said it could be a challenge to handle the difficulties arising from the large inter-state border. He expressed satisfaction at the measures taken by the police in checking liquor smuggling from Karnataka state.

The SEC called upon all people in the state to actively participate in the rural local body elections.

"With your participation, institutions like panchayats will strengthen. When the elections get over quickly, the rural local bodies will also receive their funds and good leadership," said the SEC and added village development will take place when elections are held in a democratic manner.

Ramesh Kumar said that he was taking note on the unanimous election process that is taking place in a big way. He said all political parties were expressing concern over the irregularities taking place in their bid to enforce unanimous elections.

Although he is not against unanimous election, he will not tolerate irregularities and dictatorial tendencies in the process. Shadow teams of police will be in place to detect irregularities if any in the unanimity process. The SEC stated that stern measures will be taken against officials who create problems in issuing caste and income certificates to the candidates.

Kumar assured the people that all security arrangements have been made, including stretching polling time from 6.30 am to 3.30 pm as social distancing norms had to be followed.

According to the SEC, polling time in pre-Covid times used to be between 7 am and 1 pm.

He assured that the last one hour of polling would be allocated to those Covid positive voters interested in exercising their franchise.

"In the last hour, those Covid positive patients who evinced interest to vote will be provided PPE kits and will be allowed to vote. I appreciate the District Collector for making all the arrangements for employees," Kumar added.

Set to retire on March 31, Kumar has scheduled four-phase panchayat elections, whose process begun on Friday with the nominations for the first phase while the last phase elections would be held on February 21.

Earlier, collector Gandham Chandrudu and SP Yesubabu explained in detail the arrangements made for peaceful conduct of panchayat elections by way of power point presentation to the SEC.

The collector said foolproof arrangements were made for polls and also apprised him on the covid precautionary measures taken in the district.

SP Yesubabu presented a report on the law and order situation and the measures taken for holding the polls in a conducive atmosphere.

A mobile app has been created connecting it with the call centre for the panchayat polls. The app will help those to send photographs on irregularities in complaints form to SEC directly. By the time the election reaches the third stage of voting, the app will be made accessible and available.