Seeking support and cooperation of all Principal and Administrative Secretaries of the Punjab government for the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha election, the state Chief Electoral Officer VK Singh on Wednesday advised them to provide adequate manpower and other resources as and when requested by the District Election Officer or the Returning Officer.
He has advised all the Heads of government Departments, working under their department, to provide adequate manpower and other resources to the District Election Officer or the Returning Officer.
Besides, he added that the Election Commission of India’s advisory regarding transfer and deployment of officers’ complete compliance is still awaited, thus, all have been requested to issue necessary orders and send a compliance report as within two working days.
The Supervisory Officers have been asked to get the matter enquired and fact ascertained as soon as possible and send a suo-moto report to the Office of Chief Electoral Officer in case of complaints against officers from various departments of Governments, once a complaint is noticed by the senior supervisory officer in Press, TV, social media, instead of waiting for any direction or letter from Election Commission of India.
“This approach would reduce the response and will inspire confidence of citizen and help in improving the perception of both the Election Commission of India and the Punjab Government,” he added.
Singh said that the misuse of building and other government structure by the political parties and candidates for campaigning purposes can be totally eliminated if the responsible government officer maintain vigil and doesn't allow any poster to be placed at government property (building, street, electric poles, trees etc) even before the elections are announced.
He stressed that a special campaign is required to be launched by the officers to check that all such campaigning material, if placed, has been immediately removed once the election is announced.
“In case government building or structure continues to display campaigning material after the elections are announced, all responsibility will lie with head of that office and he will be treated responsible for this lapse personally,” he added.
Singh said that all Supervisory Officers have been asked to ensure that no political party or candidature campaign material is allowed to be displayed on government property when election is announced.