Collector and district electoral officer Siddharth Komal Singh Pardeshi, in the review meeting of zonal officers organised at the Red Cross Bhawan here on Thursday, said that magisterial powers have been given to the zonal officer to maintain better law and order during the election. He directed all zonal officers to work with complete alertness and dedication during the election.
Addressing all the zonal officers coming under the seven assembly constituencies of Raipur district, Pardeshi said that all of them should do cent per cent inspection of all the polling centres in their respective areas and submit polling centre-wise reports, after inspecting arrangements for electricity, water and ramp. In the polling centre, information about assembly constituency and polling booth number, date and time of polling should be written with paint.
He told them to ensure that there were no property defacement in the polling booth and no office of any political party within 200-metre area of the polling booth. Route chart for polling party to reach the polling booth should be reviewed and amended accordingly. During the election, woman presiding officers could be deployed, hence prior arrangement should be done for their lodging in the residence of any government woman worker, Mitanin, Anganbadi, health worker or any lady teacher, near the polling booth, the collector added.
The collector told them to continue action against property defacement, under the Property Defacement Act. The hoardings put up with permission should also be examined and approval of the owner should be taken on the hoardings installed at private buildings. He said that since all zonal officers should have full information regarding the work of presiding officers, they study regularly and have information about the rules from the website of election commission of India and chief electoral officer Chhattisgarh, he added.