Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, Dec 19: Election Commission of India (ECI) conducted a detailed review of the preparedness of the electoral machinery across the State for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, which are expected to be held in May, 2014.
Besides, the ECI team also interacted with top officials of the State Election Department and all the 22 District Election Officers (Deputy Commissioners) and conducted an appraisal of the on-going Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR, “the State officials had detailed deliberations with the Deputy Election Commissioner, Vinod Zutshi through video conferencing. Though as per the earlier proposal, Mr Zutshi was to personally visit the State for an on spot assessment, his visit was cancelled due to some personal engagements and therefore the review was done through video conferencing”.
“All the 22 DCs participated in the meeting to provide their respective feedback about the poll preparedness as participation in the meeting had been made mandatory by the ECI”, sources emphasized.
Sources said, “in view of the forthcoming Parliamentary election, the main focus of the meeting was on the poll preparedness across the State. The meeting discussed a gamut of issues pertaining to the conduct of Lok Sabha polls including the status of required Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), number of polling booths and their accessibility issues, manpower issues and the readiness of electoral material”.
Sources disclosed that a 35-point agenda, which had also been furnished to all the District Election Officers were discussed on point to point basis by the Deputy Election Commissioner of India.
“Officials of the State Election Department informed the ECI incumbents that the First Level Checking (FLC) of voting machines had been done and they were all ready for use. The FLC was mandatory to assess the status of number of voting machines required at various polling booths across the State and their availability status”, sources said.
Asked about the status of NOTA (None of the Above) option, sources said, “all procedures have been followed for necessary incorporation of this unique feature, when the electorates exercise their franchise during the forthcoming Parliamentary polls”, adding, “it is mandatory to include NOTA feature in all the EVMs as per the directions of ECI and the State electorate shall use this feature for the first time”.
Keeping in mind the topography and security concerns, sources said, “the ECI officials also inquired from the respective Deputy Commissioners about the connectivity issues confronting various polling booths across the State”, adding, “on the basis of security issues, these polling booths would also be classified as sensitive and hyper-sensitive. The District Election Officers apprised theECI officials about Communication Plan, Transport Plan and Security Plan of their respective districts.”
Another important aspect, which was discussed in the meeting, was the status of Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls.
As per the schedule prescribed by the ECI, the draft electoral rolls were published on September 25, 2013 and made available for the public to check for ensuring the presence of their names and corrections. Thereafter, the electorates were told to file their claims and objections till October 24. Subsequently, the State Department had done disposal of most of theclaims and objections filed by people at different districts.
“The Department is presently updating the data base, merging of photographs and updating control tables besides preparing for printing of supplementary listwhile as the final Electoral Roll shall be published on January 6, 2014 as per the schedule prescribed by the Election Commission of India”, sources emphasised.
The Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls is conducted in order to make addition of fresh eligible voters, delete wrong entries and settle claims and objections so as to ensure error free electoral rolls.
The District Electoral Officers also apprised the Deputy Election Commissioner about the number of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) trained in the election related duties.
Pointing to the importance of this first meeting of the ECI to assess the ground-preparedness of Lok Sabha polls, sources said, “it was mandatory for all the 22 DCs to participate in the meeting and directions in this regard had been issued to all of them in advance. While most of the DCs from Kashmir Valley had already arrived in the winter capital, their counterparts from Jammu region participated in the meeting from their respective district headquarters.”
Chief Electoral Officer of J&K, Umang Narula has made it clear that non-participation of any of the District Election Officer in the meeting would be viewed very seriously and may invite stern action. Moreover, all the 22 District Election Officers were also prevented from sending their representatives.
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