Uttarakhand State Election Commission has announced the schedule of the by-elections to the vacant posts of the pradhans and members of gram panchayats in different blocks of Pauri district on Wednesday. The process of filing nomination papers, polling and counting of votes would be conducted from December 4 to December 18.

District Magistrate Sushil Kumar who is also the district election officer (Panchayat)  said that by-elections  to elect 84 new members of  the gram panchayats and six new gram pradhans would be held.

Divulging details, he said that new  gram pradhans would be elected for Aaroli under Beerokkhal block, Juledi under Yamkeshwar block and Paalkot under Ekeshwar  block would be elected among others through the by- elections slated next month.  “We have already appointed the Returning Officers and the Assistant Returning Officers  for the blocks concerned to ensure free and fair by- elections. 

The block development officer  Rameshwar Chauhan would act as the  returning officer (RO) and junior engineer RES Sajal Goel as the assistant returning officer (ARO)  for Beerokhal block while for Pokhra block, BDO  D D Nathwan would double as the RO and assistant development officer panchayat Ramesh Chandra would double as ARO. For block Kalijikhal BDO Chhandan lall Rahi would double as RO and assistant development officer forest Birendra Rawat would double as ARO while for block Yamkeshwar BDO Rajpal Singh Negi would act as RO and ADO panchayat Ranveer Kaithait would act as ARO.

 For other blocks where rural body by-elections are due, the same pattern would follow,” DM said.   

He further said that the code of conduct has come into effect with the issuance of the notification of the by elections in the areas where such elections are due and instruction has been given to the ROs and AROs  to  ensure peaceful completion of the process.

“The code of conduct would be in force till  the time the counting of votes is completed on December 18. We have taken enough measures to ensure that the code of conduct is observed strictly and the elections are held in a free and fair manner,” he added.