Authorities have started hectic preparation for the coming up lok Sabha polls for the restive Bastar region and held a training session of the zonal officers and sector magistrates at the district headquarters, Jagdalpur.
During the training which was held at the Prerana auditorium of the collectorate it was decided that all sector magistrates will travel to their respective area and submit a status report to the district electoral officer. They have been told to visit the polling centres in their respective area and submit their reports without fail before the end of this month.
The training of the officials was held on the direction of election commission in the presence of state’s master trainer professor Ramesh Chandra Joshi and deputy district election officer MM Raghuwanshi.
During the training it was told that if any vehicle would be found operating without permission, police will book them.
Similarly the campaign materials will be considered illegal if they will be found without having the name of printer, publisher, and the name of the printing press.
For lok Sabha election 2014, the sector magistrates will be responsible for the safety of electronic voting machines which would be kept in polling centres.
In case any voting machine was found with fault, the sector magistrates have been asked to ensure that they were replaced of repaired immediately.
Similarly, authorities told the zonal officers to maintain better coordination among each other as well as with the sector magistrates to make the entire election process trouble free. The sector magistrates have been told to remain present positively during the mock poll which would be carried out in any of the polling centres.
They have also been told to keep and monitor the polling parties, voting machines, security personals on the day of the voting. About 10-12 polling centres will be under the supervision of each sector magistrate, it was said.
Deputy district election officer MM Raghuwanshi said all election related training would be completed by 28 of this month. As a part of this training exercise, training was provided to zonal officers and sector magistrates on Monday.
The training related to electronic voting machines will be held on February 24.
Since the code of conduct is likely to come in force from February 26 , the members of the Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMCs) will be provided necessary training on February 26.
He also said the videographers would be provided training on February 28.Bastar collector who is also the district returning officer has directed all concerned officials including the election officials and trainers to take necessary steps in this regard, he said.