Election observers review election preparedness in Kulgam

Kulgam/April,1: The Election Observers including Expenditure Observer, Farhat Khan, General Observers Navdeep Rinwa and Sachdev for Anantnag-3 Parliamentary Constituency Saturday held a meeting with AROs, Expenditure and Assistant Expenditure Monitoring Observers, Nodal Officers and Tehsildars.
District Election Officer (DEO) Kulgam, Showkat Aijaz Bhat gave a detailed account of the preparations being made for smooth, peaceful and transparent conduct of bye-elections. He said the Nodal Officers for material, manpower and EVM management have been appointed and VSTs, SSTs, MCMC, MCC, transport/communication teams and committees have already been constituted.
The DEO informed that 335407 voters including 4690 service voters and 568 migrant voters shall exercise their franchise in 399 polling stations setup in 289 locations across the district. Further, he added that nomenclature in respect of 79 polling stations has been changed without change in location.
The Election Observers were briefed that against the requirement of 85 micro observers, 27 micro observers are available and as such webcasting shall be done in 35 locations. They were apprised that the requirement of EVMs is 479 and the randomization of the same concluded Saturday in presence of Election Observers and representatives of contesting candidates.
It was informed that MCC has received 3 complaints, so far, which have been disposed off and communicated to the concerned quarters.  Besides, the provision of Assured Minimum Facilities at the polling stations including electricity, water, furniture and ramps has been taken up with the concerned departments.
With reference to the political activity, it was apprised that the permission cell has granted 9 permissions to the political parties for organizing public rallies.
The Nodal Officer SVEEP informed the meeting that to sensitize voters about the importance of voting, various seminars have been conducted in different Colleges and Higher Secondary Schools.
The Observers emphasized carrying out more such seminars to maximize voter turnout. Besides, they directed for maintaining shadow registers of expenditure booked by the political parties.  In this regard, the Election Observers called for a meeting with the representatives of political parties and the Expenditure and Assistant Expenditure Monitoring Observers.
The General Election Observers urged the officers to ensure strict adherence to Model Code of Conduct. The Nodal Officers training were impressed upon to engage only master trainers having complete knowhow of the election process.