Kurnool: 17 panels formed to conduct polls in free, fair manner

Kurnool: Following the norms of the State Election Commission, District Collector G Veera Pandiyan said the district administration will conduct the gram panchayat elections in a free and fair manner across the district.

The Collector accompanied by Superintendent of Police (SP) Dr Fakkeerappa Kaginelli and District Panchayat Officer (DPO) Prabhakar Rao, addressed media conference at the Collector's conference hall here on Wednesday.

Speaking on the occasion, Veera Pandiyan said that 17 committees have been formed for conducting elections smoothly for 970 villages and 9,984 wards in the district.

In the first phase, he said 193 gram panchayats in 12 mandals, in second phase, 240 gram panchayats in 13 mandals, in third phase 245 gram panchayats in14 mandals and in fourth phase 292 gram panchayats in 14 mandals, altogether 970 villages in 53 mandals across the district will go for elections. Except, three gram panchayats (Sunnipent in Atmakur, Mandigeri and Sadapuram in Adoni) around 10,212 polling centres have been set up.

Apart from the polling centres, 53 flying squads, 376 Returning Officers, 380 Assistant Returning Officers (AROs), 120 Zonal Officers, 265 route officers, 12,254 polling officers, 17,808 other polling officers, 265 micro-observers have been appointed. Training to the returning and assistant returning officers of all mandals will be given at three divisions. Around 6,470 ballot boxes have been kept ready and in addition to these, 12,251 ballot boxes are needed. The ballot papers have been preserved at the strongrooms. Accompanied by the Superintendent of Police (SP) Dr Fakkeerappa Kaginelli, the collector reviewed the arrangements being made for the first phase of elections to be conducted in Nandyal.

Around 377 problematic villages, 255 sensitive villages have been identified and preventive measure have been taken at these villages to ensure no untoward incidents take place. According to 2011 census, the district has a total number of 28,37,345 voters in gram panchyats but as on January 1, 2020, the number of voters is 21,15,243. A proposal was sent to sanction 14,011 sanitisers of one litre pack, 1,60,542 face masks, 80,271 hand gloves or face shields, 4,000 thermal scanners and 1,625 personal protection kits (PPE) to the polling staff in view of prevailing coronavirus, the collector said.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Dr Fakkeerappa Kaginelli said that permission should be obtained from the returning officer for election publicity. Conducting meetings, rallies and processions without obtaining prior permission was unlawful, he said and added check posts have been set up at the state borders. As the election code was in force, the political leaders were asked to remove flexies, wall paintings and others if any else they would be prosecuted as per the law. In the last elections, bind over cases were filed on 18,000 people and in the present gram panchayat elections, the police may likely to file bind over cases on 20,000 people, said the SP.