1754 poll violations on a single day

Even as parties were busy zeroing in on their choice of candidates who would contest from the city, violations of the MCoC were being reported on a daily basis. On Thursday, the vigilance and enforcement cell of the GHMC received 1,754 instances of poll violations.

The highest instances of violence reported on Thursday were in the form of pasting of posters. Some 595 posters were pasted on government offices and 284 were pasted on private properties.

The other violations which were reported were writing on walls, sticking banners, defacing public and private properties, holding public gatherings, bursting of crackers and using public announcement systems by political parties without permission.

M Bhaskar Reddy, Additional Superintendent of Police, vigilance and enforcement cell, GHMC, said, “Ever since the code has been implemented there have been a series of violations. In two such cases, there has been gross neglect of the code. The first was at Musheerabad on March 9 during Talasani Srinivas’s padayatra, where loud instruments and music was played during the rally. The second violation was during the BJP’s Telangana Avirbhava Sabha on March 11, where crackers were burst during the meeting.”

How the vigilance cell operates

Every day, the GHMC’s vigilance cell receives data of poll violation from police stations, flying squads and static surveillance teams and the cell collates all the data.

Currently 90 flying squads and static surveillance teams have been placed on the field. Each flying squad team would consist of one district tahsildar, assistant sub-inspector or head constable and three to four constables. The static surveillance teams would consist of one revenue official, a civic officer along with a similar police component as in the flying squad. To monitor the expense by all the parties, the accounts department of the GHMC too has also been put into play.

According to Bhaskar Reddy, “The list of violations would be compiled and sent to the District Election Officer (DEO) who would then forward the list to Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal for further action. Also the offences would be penalised according to the GHMC Act and charges would be levied from the respective parties.”