As many as 63,621 personnel of state police and from central forces will be deployed to ensure peaceful conduct of Lok Sabha elections in Haryana.
This was informed during a meeting held under Haryana Additional Chief Secretary, Home SS Prasad and Director General of Police (DGP), Manoj Yadava on Thursday. They held a video conference with all Range IGs, Commissioners of Police, Divisional Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners and Districts SPs to review the progress in poll preparedness by State Police force for upcoming parliamentary elections in the state.
They said that there are only 10 days to go for polling, thus, all district police chiefs must ensure group-wise duty briefing to ensure proper utilization of police force in the election.
Prasad impressed upon them to remain extra vigilant and proactive and take all safety measures to ensure completion of electoral process in a peaceful manner. As all districts in Haryana shares boundaries with other neighboring states (except Rohtak, Charkhi Dadri and Hansi), therefore, the officers must ensure complete nakabandi in the interstate borders to prevent infiltration of criminal and anti social elements during the election process, he directed.
He also asked the officers to maintain close coordination with their counterparts in neighbouring states for peaceful conduct of elections polling for which is to be held on May 12. “You must take certain effective and appropriate measures to tackle any eventuality”, he added.
During the meeting, the DGP Manoj Yadava said that our priority is to provide a safe and secure environment to all during the electoral process.
He asked the district SPs and the DCPs to make adequate preparation for this purpose and leave no stone unturned for fair and an incident-free election. He also emphasized on the security arrangements for the visiting VVIPs/VIPs and gave necessary directions in this direction.
ADGP (Law and Order) Navdeep Singh Virk also shared the deployment plan and gave necessary directives to the officers of police and civil administration. He added that police headquarter has issued a scale of deployment of police force for the districts to ensure proper law and order during the election.
Central Armed Police Force should be deployed as per Election Commission of India guidelines he added.
23708 VVPAT MACHINES IN HARYANA
Haryana chief electoral officer Rajeev Ranjan on Thursday said that in view of the general elections 2019 to be held on May 12 in the state, a total of 43141 ballot units, 21765 control units and 23708 VVPAT machines will be used.
As many as 19425 regular and 16 auxiliary polling stations have been created in the state, he said.
As many as 1,80,56,896 registered electors including 1,05,859 service electors will decide the fate of 223 candidates in the fray in Haryana.
Ranjan said that EVM machine is completely safe and each EVM machine has a unique ID, which contains complete information about the machine. Only with the permission of the Election Commission, EVM machines can be moved from one place to another. For this, full security of police will be provided and this time, the vehicles carrying EVM machines will be GPS enabled, which will ensure complete tracking of the movement of machines, he said.
He further said that randomization of EVM machines is done at two levels. The first randomisation level decides which machine will go to which Lok Sabha constituency and at the second randomisation level, the polling station in which it will be installed is decided. After the randomisation process, the name of that polling station is written in the machine.
BJP COMPLAINS TO ECI ON “CRIMINAL CASES” AGAINST CANDIDATES
Haryana unit of Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday submitted a complaint to the Election Commission against candidates for the Lok Sabha election, who have failed to make public the details of criminal cases pending against them.
The saffron party alleged that candidates along with their parties have failed to publicly declare pendency of criminal cases or other cases in which candidate have been convicted, by way of publication within specific period as required as per ECI instructions.
The legal cell of the BJP submitted the complaint with a list of 26 candidates, including of the opposition Congress and INLD who have failed to make public their criminal cases and demanded immediate action in the matter.
The declaration of pendency of criminal cases or cases in which candidate has been convicted, by way of publication within the specific period is mandatory as per the instructions of the ECI issued on October 10 last year.
The list submitted to the CEO with the complaint by the BJP includes two candidates of the INLD and three of the Congress, one each of Aapki Apni Party, Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Garib Dal besides 9 independents.
The three Congress candidates are former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda candidate from Sonipat (6 cases – including at Gurugram, CBI Chandigarh and Delhi and ED Chandigarh), Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Ashok Tanwar candidate from Sirsa (1 Case at Sadar Deveria in UP) and Nirmal Singh candidate from Kurukshetra (1 case at Khizrabad in Yamuna Nagar), the BJP complaint stated.
The two INLD candidates in the list included Ram Lal contesting from Ambala (1 case at Yamuna Nagar and Suresh Koth in fray from Hissar (3 cases at Barwala, Sadar Hissar and Narnaund).
The other party candidates include Nitin contesting from Kurukshetra of Aapki Apni Party (3 cases at Jhansa and Civil Lines Karnal (2cases), Dinesh Sharma of Shiv Sena contesting from Karnal (3 cases at Civil Lines, Karnal) and Tilak Raj of Rashtriya Garib Dal (1 case at Karnal), the BJP stated.
The BJP in its complaint said that the instructions of ECI dated October 10, 2018 said it is mandatory for all the candidates to declare information about criminal cases in view of the directions of ECI, where the candidates who have criminal cases against them whether pending cases or in which candidate has been convicted shall publish and declare about such cases by publicity in newspapers with wide circulation in the constituency area, in Format C-1 at least on three different dates from the date following the last day for withdrawal of candidature i.e. 26/4/2019 and two days before the date of poll so that the directions of the ECI be complied with in letter and spirit.
The party said that as per the instructions further, all such candidates with criminal cases shall also be required to publish the above declaration on TV channels on three different dates during the above mentioned period, the BJP added in its complaint.