Officials told to act carefully amid public outcry over random seizures

Hyderabad: In wake of increasing number of complaints about the seizures mostly related to cash, liquor and other freebies, Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj has instructed departments concerned to act cautiously and follow the due procedure for avoiding inconvenience to the general public.

During the review meeting attended by police officials at CEO’s office, Vikas Raj underlined the need for addressing the complaints being received from the people. He asked the officials on election duty at the district level to convene a district grievances committee meeting over the matter. He instructed the officials to ensure that the cases were solved at the earliest after taking all parameters into consideration. He had also appraised them of the need to prepare and send foolproof reports like mentioning the violations and norms under which the seizures took place.

Further, the CEO instructed that wide publicity be made regarding the District Grievance Committee. He also emphasised the need for proper receipt for every seizure. If the party is aggrieved by the seizure, they must be clearly informed about the officials where they can go for an appeal. Taking stock of the situation from the EROs, ROs and other concerned senior officials through a video conference, the CEO instructed the officials to streamline the mechanism and minimise gaps.

DGP Anjani Kumar stressed the need for confidence building exercise among the voters. Additional DGP (CID) Mahesh Bhagwat suggested initiating flag marches and taking drone imaging as part of confidence building measures amongst voters.