A two-member team of Central Election Commission arrived in the city on Thursday to take stock of the preparations being made for the forthcoming Assembly polls in the State.
The Commission members namely Deputy Election Commissioners H S Brahma and Naseem Zaidi called a meeting of all district collectors and SPs at a hotel immediately after their arrival and sought information on the status of polling centres besides those classified as ‘sensitive’ and ‘ultra sensitive’ polling centres.
Chhattisgarh’s Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Kujur was present in the meeting. At the meeting, all the district collectors provided information regarding the status of polling centres in their respective districts. The members were also apprised of the status on preparation of the voters list and voter identity cards.
The SPs informed the members regarding the security arrangements to be made in the ‘Sensitive’ and Ultra sensitive’ polling centers. All the 7 district collectors of insurgency infested Bastar division provided information on the status of poll preparations in their respective districts at the meeting. The EC members later also met the representatives of various political parties and heard their demands and problems pertaining to the polls.
The political leaders mainly State Convenor of BJP’s Investment Cell Naresh Chandra Gupta, BJP State Vice President Sachchidanand Upasane besides others demanded that there should be no picture of any political leader or their name mentioned in the advertisements released by the Central Government besides urging that in the insurgency infested regions the polling be held in three phases apart from a demand that the sensitive polling booths must be established in ‘open areas’.