The Ganjam district administration and election officials are determined to conduct the ensuing general elections in a free and fair manner with zero tolerance for lawbreakers. This was stated by Nodal Officer-cum-in-charge of the Complainant Cell Balamukunda Bhuyan at a Press conference at Collectorate at Chhatrapur on Thursday.
The enthusiasm of the voters for the 2014 elections is quite high as evident from the fact that the election authorities have received 8,653 applications from voters for correction of their names and other information in the voters’ list, issue of new cards and photographs. The 8,653 applications include 4,288 from Chhatrapur and 3,735 from Bhanjanagar. Besides, 16,676 voters have submitted their applications from the entire district of Ganjam for correction of their ID cards. New ID cards would be issued to them a week before the elections take place, Bhuyan said.
The total number of voters of the district has reached 25,38,622. To monitor the polling process in the highly sensitive areas, the Collector, SP, Magistrates and the police have been entrusted with the power to take necessary measures as and when required. While two flying squads for the two lok Sabha constituencies of the district would remain at the headquarters, 39 flying squads for the 13 Assembly constituencies of the district would be deployed with a Magistrate, a police officer and three other police personnel in each team, Bhuyan said. “There are currently 2833 polling booths in Ganjam district, and we are going to add 53 more to meet the emerging need,” he informed.
The routes in which looting of money and illegal liquor take place have been identified and videography has been arranged to keep a strict vigil on such unfair practices. Each election candidate would have to open a new bank account exclusively for the purpose of election in which they would have to deposit the required amount to be spent and they would have to submit the detailed accounts to the Collector later.
If there is any violation of the model code of conduct, the concerned tehsildar and concerned PS IIC may be informed for action, Bhuyan said. Any complaint pertaining to elections can be reported through phone no 1950. So far, 30 such calls have been received, he added. Among others, Pradipta Kumar Nanda of PDDRTA and DPRO Biranchinarayan Pradhan were present.