Deekshitula Subrahmanyam Amalapuram

Dr BR Ambedkar Konaseema district Collector R Mahesh Kumar has directed officials to complete all arrangements for the smooth conduct of local body elections in the district, stressing that there should be no negligence in the discharge of election duties.

Along with Joint Collector Waikhom Nydia Devi, he reviewed election preparedness for municipalities, ZPTC, MPTC and gram panchayat elections with district-level officers, nodal officers and heads of various departments at the Collectorate on Wednesday. He instructed all departments to work in coordination and ensure that the elections were conducted transparently and peacefully. Municipal commissioners were entrusted with supervising municipal elections, while Zilla Parishad CEO was assigned responsibility for ZPTC and MPTC elections and the District Panchayat Officer for gram panchayat elections. District-level officers were appointed as nodal officers for other departments.

Officials informed the meeting that publication of gram panchayat electoral rolls had been completed. Of the 20 copies of electoral rolls required for the Zilla Parishad, 10 copies had already been supplied, and arrangements were being made to provide the remaining copies to the ZP CEO. The Collector directed officials to complete the preparation, printing and distribution of supplementary electoral rolls for municipalities to political parties within the stipulated time. He asked officials to expedite the appointment and randomisation of polling personnel.

Additional staff could be engaged as per the rules to address any shortage, while special attention should be given to the appointment of micro observers. The first and second phases of training for presiding officers, assistant presiding officers and other polling personnel should be completed according to the schedule, he said.

Officials informed the meeting that eight counting tables had been arranged in Amalapuram, six in Mummidivaram and six in Ramachandrapuram for municipal election vote counting. The Collector directed officials to finalise counting tables and staff allocations for MPTC constituencies without delay. Security arrangements at sensitive polling stations also came under review. Of the 50 polling stations in Ramachandrapuram municipality, 15 were identified as sensitive and 16 as hyper-sensitive.

In Amalapuram, 18 of the 71 polling stations were classified as sensitive and another 18 as hyper-sensitive. In Mummidivaram, seven of the 23 polling stations were identified as sensitive. The Collector instructed officials to make comprehensive arrangements for webcasting and videography at the identified polling stations to ensure close monitoring of the polling process.