Pulling up the pair of socks, ECI attunes the system citing the peaceful elections ahead

 

 

New Delhi, January 12: With a view to focus on the electoral roll and meticulous planning for the elections heading, the Election Commission of India had organised a two day conference of the Chief Electoral Officers of all the states and Union territories citing the EVM and VVPAT assessment, training and extensive voter outreach. A comprehensive review of Poll Preparedness of the States prior to the General elections 2019 was conducted through these two days.

 

Addressing the CEOs, the Chief Election Commissioner of India Sunil Arora emphasized the fact that the electoral roll that is currently under the process of revision and finalization will be used in the forthcoming General elections. “This particular revision assumes additional importance and care must be taken to ensure the purity of the Roll.”, he said.

 

He also said that every effort must be made so that all voters are registered well in time. He also directed all the state CEOs to set in place support systems for the 1950 Helpline as early as possible.

 

Arora reiterated the commitment of the Election commission of India to provide assured minimum facilities in all polling stations. The CEOs need to have their Booth level, District level and state level Plans ready and conduct a meticulous assessment of all resources required for the conduct of elections. The States and the UTs must assess their EVM/ VVPAT requirements and also ensure adherence to the timelines specified for completion of their First Level checking.”, he added addressing the CEOs.

 

He laid stress upon extensive Hands on experience of the EVM and VVPAT among the voters as well as during the training of polling officials as it helps to minimize the glitches and also boosts confidence among the stakeholders.

 

Through the two day conference, each and every aspect of conduct of election including availability of sufficient budget, manpower, resources, SVEEP, planning, polling station arrangements and IT applications including Suvidha, Sugam and C-Vigil were discussed in detail and the preparedness of States/UTs on each of these parameters was assessed.

 

The five states which had recently undergone Assembly elections – Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Telengana and Rajasthan gave a presentation on the take aways and the learnings from their experiences. All the other CEOs of States and UTs made comprehensive presentations to the Commission on the key areas of their preparations for the forthcoming LokSabha Elections 2019.

 

The Conference closed both with a sense of achievement as well as a sense of heightened responsibility for the task that lay ahead.