Nomination process begins in Ongole division

Ongole : The submission of nominations for the Sarpanch and ward members to the village panchayats started in the 14 mandals of the Ongole division, on Friday.

By Friday evening, the officials received 41 nominations for the Sarpanch and 65 nominations for the ward member positions.

The nomination process started as soon as the returning officers at the panchayat offices released the notification for the phase I of panchayat elections. District panchayat officer GV Narayana Reddy announced in a statement that the soft and hard copies of the electoral rolls for the total 1,035 village panchayats are kept available. He said that elections for the 229 panchayats of the 14 mandals from the Ongole revenue division are scheduled in Phase I.

He said that there are 7,714 ballot boxes, including 4,545 small, 1,767 medium and 1,402 big ballot boxes are available in the district and are enough to conduct the elections in three phases. He added that following the instructions of the SEC, they have appointed 80 Stage I and 229 Stage II returning officers for the Phase I election and are provided training.

The DPO said that they have got already printed 26.59 lakh ballot papers for the Sarpanch and 21.23 lakh ballot papers for the ward member election symbol wise and kept them under safe custody. They have identified 3,769 polling stations as normal, 3,732 as sensitive and 2,971 as hypersensitive polling stations in the districtand are making necessary arrangements for webcasting from the sensitive and hyper-sensitive polling stations, he added.

With special reference to the Covid-19, the DMHO has been appointed as the nodal officer to take up measures with coordination of medical and ICDS officials at the polling stations.