Ahead of the Assembly polls in Haryana, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday said it was satisfied with the preparations made so far for the polls.
“We are satisfied with the preparatory arrangements by the state and district machinery,” Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath said at a news conference after holding separate meetings with political parties and district and police officers.The polling for the 90 Assembly seats in Haryana is to be held in October.
Asked about the possible dates for the polls, Sampath said, “We have not decided upon dates yet.” He remained non-committal on whether the polls in the four States will be held simultaneously or in phased manner. “We are getting inputs from political parties by visiting poll bound States,” he said, adding that after examining the ground situation a final decision will be taken on poll dates in the four states.
He, however, said after visiting Maharashtra and Haryana the Commission is of the opinion that October month is a festival season in the two states while its heavy monsoon in September in Jharkhand.
Sampath said during the poll panel’s visit to Haryana it met around eight to nine political parties first and then held parleys with Deputy Commissioners (DCs), Superintendents of Police (SPs), Inspector Generals of Police (IGPs), Divisional Commissioners, Chief Secretary, DGP and officers of the Income Tax (IT) to seek information on election arrangements.
Besides Haryana, elections are scheduled to be held in three States — Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir. The EC is in the process of visiting each of these states to gather the inputs and examine the ground realities after which decision would be taken whether the elections in these states should be held jointly or separately, Sampat said.
Special summary revision of electoral rolls has been completed and the final list has been published. In all, 3.82 lakh applications were received and after scrutiny, 1.62 crore eligible electors are left in the state. The deletions in the final publication of electors roll aggregate 2.19 lakh. The CEC said that Haryana had achieved hundred per cent target set for issuance of electoral photo identity cards.
He said that with a view to ensuring maximum participation of electors, the officers had been asked to vigorously launch SWIPE Voters Awareness Programme in both urban and rural areas of the state.
Asked about the EC receiving any complaint from the political parties regarding setting up of separate SGPC for Haryana, he said this was one of the issues discussed at the meeting. “Though we are not directly concerned with this issue yet the Commission has asked the Director General of Police to maintain law and order during the elections. As it is a religious issue, the Commission wanted it to be resolved by both the groups amicably,” he added.