Chief Electoral Officer, Jharkhand, K Ravi Kumar made a surprise inspection of the polling stations located in the inaccessible areas of Sahebganj, Mandro and visited the villages and met senior/disabled voters. The CEO met Khalil Ansari, a 92-year-old senior and disabled citizen of Badkhori village, and inquired about his name being in the voter list. He told that earlier he lived in Purnia district of Bihar, but now he is living in Badkhori.
Khalil informed that he never exercised his franchise due to his name not being in the voter list. On this, the Chief Electoral Officer directed to immediately start the process of adding Khalil's name to the voter list. He met other senior voters and learned about the minimum facilities and other arrangements available for them at the polling station.
The CEO conducted surprise inspection of upgraded polling station number-4 of High School, Amjhor South, Mandro, polling station number-9 of upgraded High School, Badkhori Pradhan Tola, Mandro, upgraded polling station number-10 of Middle School, Moti Lakshmi, Mandro and upgraded polling station number-13 of Middle School, Ranidih.
Kumar also inspected remote polling stations with foot access roads. Walking a distance of more than a kilometre, he also inspected polling station number 4 of the upgraded high school Amjhor South, Mandro of Sahebganj and observed the minimum facilities available there.
The CEO took stock of various polling stations. He took information from the BLOs present at the polling stations about the minimum facilities for voters and the work being done for voter awareness. While observing the list of members of the polling station awareness group and the voter list, he prepared the list of polling station awareness group and volunteers separately, collected Form 6 related to adding the name of a new voter in the voter list at the time of the process of adding the name.
Also, after finalizing the voter list, instructions were given to complete the process related to removing the names of absentee, displaced and dead (ASD) from the voter list in time. Apart from making arrangements for clean toilets and running water, he directed to ensure availability of pure drinking water. Instructions were given to ensure the provision of drinking water by installing tankers or tanks at those polling stations where there is no adequate arrangement for pure drinking water.
The Chief Electoral Officer also inquired about the seating area for the polling officer, presiding officer and others and the place marked for keeping the EVM/VVPAT in the polling room. While removing the shortcomings of minimum necessary facilities at the polling stations, he gave strict instructions to install fans in the polling booths and construct sheds at the polling stations in view of the heat for the voters.
The CEO held a meeting with the District Electoral Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Deputy Electoral Officer, Electoral Registration Officer, Assistant Electoral Registration Officer and other officials in the auditorium of Borio block of Sahebganj and highlighted the shortcomings of minimum facilities and election preparations at the polling stations.
District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Hemant Sati, Deputy Development Commissioner Satish Chandra, Additional Collector Raj Maheshwaram and other officials were present in the meeting organized in the Block Auditorium after inspection of polling stations by the Chief Electoral Officer.
