Wanaparthy Collector Sweta Mohanty holds all-party meet ahead of civic polls

Wanaparthy: District Collector Sweta Mohanty had conducted an all-party meeting with members of all political parties in the district on Tuesday at her chambers and sought their suggestions, advices and ideas to conduct the municipal elections in a fare and free manner sans any hassles.

Addressing the members, the Collector said that the district administration has completed the division of wards and setting up of new polling centres as per the directions of State Election Commission. The Collector called upon political party members to create awareness among public with regard to division of wards and bifurcation of voters list as per the new wards. "As we have bifurcated some of the wards, the voters will be distributed as per the demographics of new wards. However, there are chances that some voters of one ward may go to the other ward. Therefore, it is time for the political party members to go through all these issues and check the voter's lists again and if there are any changes, they can be rectified from January 5 to 7. The political parties play a vital role in creating awareness about new wards, voters list and polling stations," said the Collector.

She said that the officials have taking maximum care to ensure that there are no major demographic changes and geographic divisions of wards, and the political parties need not worry about it much. However, a representatives of Congress party, Shankar Prasad, raised the issue that in some wards the authorities have not followed the due process and they have divided the wards unscientifically. The political party members submitted as many as 15 objections with regard to division of wards, to which, the Collector assured them of laying special focus on those issues and resolve them at the earliest.

A few members from Bahujan Samaj Party raised the issue of errors in voters list and said that a few people who voted in the gram panchayat elections were included in the municipal election voters list. Steps will be taken to remove the names repeated in the list, the Collector assured.

Before concluding the meeting, all the political party members urged the District Collector to put a complete ban on sale of liquor in the district until the municipal elections were completed. The Collector said that the district administration was taking steps to put a ban on the liquor sale during elections and to ensure that there was no excess flow of liquor in the district, the administration has set up check posts and strict vigil is being put in force to check the sale of liquor in the district.