EC rules out chances of stalling local polls

Guntur: State Election Commissioner Ramakanth Reddy on Thursday said that there would be no possibility of putting off elections to local bodies. He held a regional convention on the conduct of panchayat elections with the officials of Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts here. Addressing the Collectors and other district officials, he asked them to get ready to conduct the elections immediately after government's notification on reservations. At the most, the elections might be delayed by just two months in case of non-release of gazette on reservations as expected by the Election Commission. But there was no question of cancelling the elections, he said. Ramakanth Reddy said that the Election Commission would conduct polls to 21,600 village panchayats, 1,097 mandal parishad territorial constituencies (MPTCs) and 22 zilla parishads (ZPs). The officials should be prepared to hold the elections free from political affiliations. The Election Commission had stepped up vigilance to prevent the district officials from being influenced by any favours. The district machineries concerned would shortly receive poll material, he said. 'Panchayat polls on the basis of 2001 census' Eluru: State Election Commissioner Ramakant Reddy said that notification for panchayat elections would be issued after the state government issued a gazette notification with details of reservations. The Commissioner was speaking to the media after addressing a review meeting with the officials of Krishna, East and West Godavari districts on the arrangements for the proposed elections here on Wednesday. He said the State government has decided to hold elections to panchayats in the State on the directives of the Supreme Court and the elections would be held on the basis of 2001 census. He said the government has decided to hold six regional conventions on the poll arrangements like setting up of polling stations, readying ballot boxes, security arrangements by police, identification of problematic villages and precautions to be taken, security to ballot boxes, setting up of counting centres, printing of ballot papers among other things. These conventions have already been completed at Visakhapatnam and Eluru and the remaining four would be completed by this month end, he said. The District Collectors, Superintendents of Police and other Panchayat officers would be given a briefing on the conduct of polls. Observing that the State Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar Lal had informed him that all those who enrolled themselves as voters have been given photo identification cards in the State, Mr Reddy asked those who lost their photo identity cards to exercise their franchise by producing either ration card, pan card, Aadhaar card or any other identity as stipulated by the Election Commission.