Meeting held between the district civil and police administration to discuss election-related issues

A Correspondent

Dibrugarh: With the Election Commission of India declaring the polling dates for the Lok Sabha elections on Sunday, the district civil and police administration here chalked out a detailed plan on Monday with the objective of helping the elections run smoothly.

At the press meet held, many dignitaries, including Deputy Commissioner Pallav Gopal Jha; Superintendent of Police S Sankaran; Election Officer Sushanta Dutta and ADC P. Bairagi were present and discussed all the issues concerned with the respective department heads who attended the meeting. It was informed during the meet that the polling stations would be divided into general and critical. Also, a demonstration on the use of Voters’ Verifiable Paper Audit Trail System (VVPAT) was given as this method, which helps the voter verify their vote, will be introduced for the first time.

Moreover, the DC had already ordered, under the Model Code of Conduct, for the removal of all political advertisements being put up in the district. Upon questioned by a reporter whether the order also covered the hoardings of Swachh Bharat Mission, Jha responded that SBM carried one of the key messages and aspirations of Gandhiji, and thus, need not be removed.

Bairagi, entrusted to look after the finance of the election, highlighted the expenditure limit of the prospective candidates and also talked about the implementation of the system of shadow vigilance to ensure their accountability. The district has a total number of 1,268 polling booths and 9,72,231 voters. Out of these, 4,82,606 are female voters and 4,89,625 are male voters. Scheduled for the first phase on April 11 along with four other constituencies of Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Tezpur and Kaliabor , the last date of filing nominations is March 25, 2019. The scrutiny of nominations will take place on March 26. The last date of withdrawal of candidature is March 28.

A district-level control room has been set up to address the queries of the citizens regarding the elections. The contact numbers are 0373-2312940 and 9435358371. Similarly, the Police Control Room number is 0373-2329655, and the Police Election Control Room Contact number is 0373-2327086.

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