The State Election Commission (SEC) on Friday convened a meeting all Collectors-cum-District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police and explained about their duties and responsibilities set by the SEC for free and fair panchayat polls scheduled to begin onFebruary 13.
Home Secretary Asit Tripathy, DGP KB Singh, Intelligence Director Sunil Roy and almost all the Collectors, SPs and other senior State Government officials attended the meeting.
In the post-demonetisation phase, stress was put on conducting the grassroots-level elections by means of minimum cash and maximum cashless transactions.
State Election Commissioner Rabi Narayan Senapati after the meeting said discussions were held on the various aspects of organising the elections.
“The Collectors and the SPs apprised the commission on the problems and the facilities available in their respective districts. The chief discussion was on conducting the polls in a free, fair and peaceful manner. The Collectors and SPs put forth their suggestions. We hope that the upcoming panchayat polls will pass off peacefully, smoothly and incident-free,” said Senapati.
“Certain confusions were cleared and clarifications made at the meeting. Discussion was also held on the post-demonetisation issues, particularly how to organise the election in a cashless manner, especially for requisition of vehicles. Payment will be made online or through cheques. Discussion was held on minimum cash transactions by the administration during the polls,” said Angul Collector Anil Samal.
While blue ballot paper would be used for the Ward Member post, yellow is for the Sarpanch, pink for the Samiti Member and white for the Zilla Parishad posts, sources added.
The polling would take place in five phases on February 13, 15, 17, 19 and 21.