Soon after the Election Commission of India announced the dates of the Assembly election in States including Uttarakhand on Wednesday, Dehradun District Magistrate and district election officer Ravinath Raman held a meeting with the returning officers, assistant returning officers, nodal officers/assistant nodal officers and zonal/sector magistrates and reviewed the preparations for the Assembly polls.
Raman said that in the recent Supreme Court direction that no political leader should appeal through posters and banners to the voters to exercise their vote on the basis of language, religion, caste, community and other such distinctions, should be implemented strictly. Such posters should immediately be removed and election control room should be informed about the same without delay. The officer further informed that any candidate cannot exceed the election expenditure limit of Rs 28 lakh for an individual candidate.
Raman directed all the officers deputed on election duty to implement model code of conduct issued by Election Commission of India strictly in them areas under their jurisdiction. Election works assigned to them should be completed with honesty and responsibility. All the posters and banners put up at government offices or buildings should immediately be removed. The officials should also maintain transparency while executing their works. No works should be left incomplete and steps should be taken to complete the election-related works without any delay. He directed the sub divisional magistrates to conduct physical inspection of the critical and vulnerable polling booths apart from ensuring that the basic assured facilities are available there for smooth conduct of assembly election in the area under their jurisdiction. The Dehradun senior superintendent of police Sweety Aggarwal said that sector magistrates and police officers would work in coordination whiel also maintaining procedural transparency. Video graphy of preventive measures should also be conducted to avoid undesirable situations involving any of the political party leaders. Action taken by the officials should be unbiased and transparent. Apart from the DM and SSP, the sub divisional magistrate (civil) Vipin Tomar, superintendent of police (Crime) Tripti Bhatt, chief development officer Banshidhar Tiwari, additional district magistrate Harbeer Singh and other officers were also among those present in the meeting.