General observer, Election Commission, K H Kulkarni said that the Government employees deployed on the polling duties should act transparently while executing the order of the election commission. “Besides, they must be well-conversant with the election procedures,” he said. He was present during the first phase of the training involving the zonal magistrates, sector magistrates, presiding officers and first polling officers held at Gopeshwar in Chamoli district on Friday. The training was given by the master trainers in the presence of general observer Election Commission, the district election officer and the additional district election officer among others for the upcoming Tharali Assembly by- election slated on May 28. To ensure free and fair polling, five zonal magistrates, 39 sector magistrates, 276 presiding officers and 276 first polling officers have been appointed. There would be 178 polling booths in the Tharali Assembly segment.
District Magistrate Ashish Joshi who is also the district election officer instructed the employees to be deployed on polling duty to learn the operation of the electronic voting machines (EVM) and VVPATs clearly in course of the training. “If any confusion persists they should be cleared during the training itself so that no problem comes up during the polling and the counting,” he said.
Joshi instructed all concerned to go through the handbook issued by the election commission in which all the details of an ideal polling process are described. He said that the polling officers must check the EVMs, VVPATs and other election materials before they depart for their respective polling booths. “Besides, the polling teams must coordinate with their zonal and sector magistrates continuously and all the election equipments must be brought to the counting venues safely after the polling is over,” DM said.
The district chief development officer who is also the additional district election officer Hansa Dutt Pandey said that the election work should be done in a team spirit. “Information should be passed on to the zonal and sector magistrates every hour during the polling,” the CDO said.