CS, DGP among 5 get PM’s Award

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 21: Chief Secretary Madhav Lal, Director General of Police, Kuldeep Khoda were among five officers of the State, who were conferred with the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in the Public Administration for successfully conducting Panchayat elections in the State.
The 2010-11 awards were presented during the Civil Services Day function at Union Capital.
Besides Chief Secretary and DGP, the awards were also conferred on Chief Electoral Officer, B R Sharma, Principal Secretary Planning and Development, B B Vyas and R K Varma, Special Secretary to Chief Secretary.
The first Panchayati Raj elections in the State were held in 2001 following which they were disrupted due to the grave law and order situation in the state.
The State Cabinet had in February 2011 decided to hold elections for ‘halqa’ panchayats and to establish Panchayati Raj Institutions.
The law and order situation in the proceeding summers of 2008, 2009 and 2010 was grim. However, even in such trying circumstances the elections to panchayats were held successfully in 2011.
The entire polling plan was prepared strategically. Every stakeholders were involved in the entire process of election by giving information of the various steps, process and code of conduct in a transparent manner. Citizens were also made aware of the process through mass awareness programmes, according to the citation of the award.
It said that computerization of electoral rolls, which were prepared in Urdu, Hindi and English, in more than 29,000 polling stations also helped in the process.