With the Assembly polls of five States, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur completed, Election Commission of India (ECI) has initiated exercise for poll preparedness in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
A senior official in the State Election Commission (SEC) said that approximately `240 crore is required for 2017 Assembly polls in Gujarat. The figure is 30 per cent higher than the last Assembly polls in the State. In the 2012 polls nearly `185 crores were spent, while the cost for 2014 Parliamentary polls for 26 lok Sabha constituencies in the State was `212 crore. “Huge amount is required for staff salaries, transportation and logistics, security arrangements as well as food during Assembly polls,” said the official while also adding that SEC will begin procedures to update electoral rolls across the State from April.
last time updation process of electoral rolls was conducted by SEC six months back. During the campaign 11.34 new voters were added. Ahmedabad district was on top with addition of 93,900 voters, followed by Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara districts with 68,700, 43,277 and 33,653 voters respectively. As on January 2017 there are approximately 4.25 crore electors have been registered in Gujarat.
SEC is anticipating addition of new voters during the electoral roll updation campaign starting from next month. The updation process includes addition and deletion of names as well as change of addresses. ‘
‘We have started procedures to conduct State Assembly elections in Gujarat. The elections are scheduled in December this year. We have planned to complete poll preparedness procedures by October end,’’ said CEO BB Swain.
In order to complete the 2017 assembly polls in Gujarat, three lakh manpower would require and for the purpose, letters were sent to related departments of state as well as central government, said Swain. Apart from government employees, staff of public sector undertakings (PSUs) and universities would be deployed for election duties, he added.
There are 48000 polling booths in 182 assembly constituencies of the state in which approximately 2.50 lakh staff required. Moreover, micro-observers will require in these booths. SEC has also told the state government to fill vacate positions of returning officers. Nearly 70,000 Election Voting Machines (EVMs) will require to conduct polling in all the constituencies comfortably.