Chief Secretary Anthony de Sa held discussions with Collectors at Mantralaya’s conference hall here on Sunday. The Collectors were in the State capital Bhopal, on Sunday, for a meeting with senior officers of Election Commission of India (ECI).

The Chief Secretary directed collectors that top priority should be attached to election related works and at the same time relief should be provided to people affected by unseasoned excessive rains and hailstorm as per eligibility and implement National Food Security Act.

The Chief Secretary gave guidelines to collectors regarding wheat procurement. Directives were given regarding arrangements for procurement centers, payment to farmers and implementation as per rules. The Principal Secretary Revenue informed about provisions and directives about no-objection received from Election Commission of India in the context of lok Sabha elections.

Principal Secretary Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection directed to ensure implementation of public distribution system as per earlier detailed instructions.Election duty not to impede PDS distribution The meeting has informed that the lok Sabha elections will be held in 3 phases in the State.  Food grains will be distributed from April 3 to 5 instead of April 7, 8 and 9 in the areas where nodal officers of PDS will be on election duty for first phase election on April 10.

Polling for the second phase would be held on April 17 while the polling for third and last phase of polls in the state would be held on April 24. In first phase, nine parliamentary constituencies of the State would go to poll while in second and third phase ten-ten constituencies would go to poll.