As part of the preparations for the upcoming three-tier panchayat election in Haridwar district, the presiding and polling officers have been imparted training on the nitty-gritty of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in Roorkee, laksar and Khanpur on Monday.
Haridwar district election officer and district magistrate Harsbans Singh Chugh said on Monday that all the Government and non-Government offices, educational institutions, commercial establishments and others will remain closed on the days the polling would be held.
Polling will be conducted on December 21 in Khanpur and laksar blocks, while the votes would be polled on December 27 in Bahadrabad and Bhagwan blocks. The final phase would be held in Roorkee and Narsan blocks on January 2. The election officer said that election being a constitutional process, all the officials who have been assigned with election duties should understand their responsibility well. The presiding officers have been directed to study the election- related materials in depth and they should have their doubts cleared during the training programmes, he said.
The presiding officers should check electoral rolls before they leave station for their respective polling booths. Besides, they should check the ballot papers properly so that no problem crops up later. After the polling is over, they need to ensure that they have donethe ceiling process correctly, Chugh said.
A total of 4, 38, 286 male voters and 3, 94, 827 female voters are expected to exercise their franchise in this rural election restricted to Haridwar district . A total of 525 polling centres and 1508 polling booths have been made and 7540 officials have been deployed to conduct the three- tier election peacefully, he added.
Haridwar SSP Senthil Akdai Krishna Raj S said that fool- proof security has been drafted to ensure peaceful and free and fair Panchayat election in the district. A list of police officers who have been appointed as zonal magistrates and sector magistrates has already been prepared. Adequate number of police personnel will be appointed at each of the polling booths to avoid untoward incidents during the election process in the district, he said, adding that special vigilance will be laid at the polling booths which have been demarcated as sensitive and ultra- sensitive in the district.
The presiding officers and polling officers have been directed to keep telephone numbers or phone numbers of the local police station where they have been assigned duties, the SSP said.
Others present on the occasion were Haridwar chief development officer Sonika, additional DM (finance) Abhishek Tripathi, district project director SS Chauhan, election training in-charge Dr Rajesh Upadhyay, DPRO Mohammad Jaffar Khan, and district saving officer Akhilesh Shukla aside from a large number of presiding and polling officers.