Shailendra reviews election preparedness, status of facilities at Polling Stations

Jammu: Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), J&K, Shailendra Kumar, Monday chaired a meeting to discuss the general preparedness and other related issues for the forthcoming elections in the State.
The CEO held detailed discussion with the officers regarding the creation of infrastructural and other basic facilities at the polling stations across the State for the smooth conduct of elections. He reviewed the status of these facilities with the concerned officers and called upon them to put in place all such facilities at each polling station well in advance to facilitate hassle-free elections.
Commissioner/Secretary R&B, PHE, I&FC, Khurshid Ahmed Shah, Secretary School Education, Ajeet Kumar Sahu, Secretary Social Welfare, Farooq Ahmed Lone, ADGP Security & Law and Order, Muneer Ahmed Khan, Commissioner State Taxes, P.K. Bhat, Commissioner Excise, Talat Parvez, General Manager, Telecommunication, Kulbushan Sharma, Additional Secretary Housing & Urban Development Department, Narinder Khajuria, representatives of Transport and PDD attended the meeting.
The CEO informed that basic facilities like availability of electricity, drinking water, toilets, ramps, wheel chairs, communication, transport and above all the foolproof security system are mandatory at all the polling stations for the smooth conduct of elections and these should be put in place well in advance by the concerned departments. He called upon the officers to personally monitor the progress of these facilities for which a close coordinated approach is must to ensure that every polling station gets ready for the election. He also discussed the issues related to the financial resources to be incurred for creating these facilities.
Meanwhile, the CEO also interacted with all the District Election Officers (Deputy Commissioners) through video conferencing and reviewed the election preparedness in their respective districts. The issues which prominently figured and were discussed included, District Election Management Plan, Booth Level Election management Plan, Security Management Plan, physical verification of polling stations viz-a-viz availability of necessary facilities, implementation of training calendar, transport plan, communication plan, EVMs stock and status of election related material.
The CEO called upon the Deputy Commissioners to attend all election related matters on priority to ensure that all arrangements are at place in time. He urged them to plug the gaps, if any with the close coordination of Election Department.