Review meet on MPTC & ZPTC election arrangements

Tirupati: Chittoor District Collector Solomon Arokia Raj reviewed the arrangements for the forthcoming Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTC) and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC) elections with all MPDOs (Mandal Parishad Development Officers) at Zilla Parishad Conference Hall in Chittoor on Thursday. The Collector directed them to complete all works in a stipulated period to conduct free and fair elections in the district. The Collector instructed the MPDOs to finalise the voters' list by April 2 and the list of polling stations by April 6. All MPDOs should be ready with all the required documents and arrangements for MPTC and ZPTC elections, he said. The District Collector emphasized that the entire staff should follow the guidelines mentioned in the GO No. 405 issued by the State Election Commission regarding the elections and stringent action would be taken against those who violate these guidelines. Solomon also suggested the MPDOs to make last minute additions and deletions of voters' list by April 10 and the final draft copy to be verified with the District Election Officer. Meeting with representatives from all parties would be held on April 12 for cross verification of voters' list drafted copy and after noting down the suggestions and complaints from these representatives, the final copy of voters' list would be finalized on April 16 and this final list will be published on April 17 with the approval of District Election Officer, the Collector said. He suggested the MPDOs to take help from police department in finalizing the sensitive and more sensitive polling stations. The entire polling process would be monitored by officials concerned through web casting and district machinery is procuring web cameras as per the need and this process would be linked through internet and laptops to Hyderabad for verification. For this technological need, they are taking help from Information Technology students, the Collector added. The Collector told the officials to provide furniture, toilets, drinking water and power supply equipment for uninterrupted polling. "There is no dearth of funds for drinking water needs. The State Election Commission may release Rs 3 crores for election purpose and district machinery is ready to provide additional funds at emergency needs," he disclosed. Joint Collector Vinay Chand, Additional JC Venkata Subba Reddy, ZP Chief Executive Officer Nageswara Rao and District Panchayat Officer Sesha Reddy wee present in the review meeting.