EC asks Telangana CEO to release non-election-related cash after grievance committees' clearance

HYDERABAD: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday urged Telangana CEO Vikas Raj and election officials to release non-election-related cash after district grievance committees' clearance.

ECI on Monday reviewed the progress made so far in preparing for the Telangana State Assembly elections, which are scheduled to take place on November 30, 2023. The commission instructed the State election machinery to ensure all loose ends were addressed as the nomination process is set to commence soon.

To avoid causing inconvenience to the general public, the Commission has asked Telangana's CEO to release all cash that had nothing to do with the elections.

Nitesh Kumar Vyas, Senior Dy. Election Commissioner and Pankaj Srivastava, Director(Expenditure) of ECI, directly interacted with all the DEOs, SPs, CPs of Telangana, through a video conference from New Delhi. Mahesh Bhagawat, State Expenditure Monitoring Nodal Officer, Sanjay Kumar Jain, IPS, State Police Nodal Officer, also enlightened them of the various measures taken in this regard. Collectors, DEOs, SPs from Nalgonda, Bhadradri, Jangaon, Warangal, Khammam, GHMC etc also participated in the meeting.

Lokesh Kumar, additional CEO, explained in detail of the arrangements made completely, regarding adequate security, facilities for polling staff, complaint redressal mechanism, creation of integrated control room, strict implementation of MCC, popularising c-Vigil, identification of vulnerable areas for future deployment of forces, constitution of MCMC, virtual campaigning, uploading of affidavits, strong room arrangements etc.

Sarfaraz Ahmad, joint CEO detailed on the status of electoral rolls, preparation of ASD lists, steps taken to prepare the marked copies of ER, preparation, distribution and monitoring of Voter information slips and voter guide information.

Dy. CEO Satyavani explained that all the DEOs and ROs were informed of the numbers of recognised political parties, unrecognised political parties, list of RUPPs (Registered Unrecognized Political Parties), common symbols allotted to RUPPs, list of approved free symbols and arrangements for online nominations in ENCORE and printing and distribution strategy for postal ballot papers. Further she said, instructions were given to EROs, ROs on ETPBs, postal ballots to absentee voters i.e., AVSC, AVPD, AVCO & AVES categories.

Additional points on Electoral Rolls

• Over 10.6 lakh Form 7 applications have been disposed of, with around 10,000 remaining in the final disposal stage and expected to be disposed of within two days.
• Applications for deletions received after October 9th will only be included in the roll after the election process is completed.
• District operators were trained on how to generate an electoral roll through ERO Net training. On November 10th, after all forms are submitted, an electoral roll for the upcoming assembly elections would be generated and printed.
• The Electoral roll is provided free of charge to all the candidates of all recognized political parties, and parties can request it on a payment basis.
• Political parties would receive a soft copy of the alphabetical order electoral roll upon payment of prescribed fees.
• VIS, along with Voter Guide, would be generated from ERO Net after freezing.
• The distribution of VIS and Voter Guide will be carried out by BLOs following a procedure, with all DEOs closely monitoring the process.
• The BLOs would prepare the Absentees, Shifted and Dead (A.S.D) list after distributing Voter Information Slips to the voters. The Presiding Officer would receive the same list and a working copy of the roll to prevent fraudulent voting. Special care must be taken by the presiding officer, in case a voter whose name is included in the ASD list turns up for voting.
• All polling stations would offer Assured Minimum Facilities to ensure smooth, hassle-free, and convenient voting for voters on polling day.
• A Voter Assistance booth would be established at every polling location, staffed by a team of BLOs/officials to assist voters in correctly locating their polling booth. Necessary arrangement in setting up Voter Assistance Booth would be provided at all PS by DEOs.
• A total of 597 women managed polling stations and 120 PwD managed polling stations were being set up.
• Special facilities like provision of wheel chair and volunteer at each PS were being arranged to facilitate PwD and senior citizen voters. Further transport facilities would also be provided if requested by PwD voters or senior citizens. Procurement of 18,000 wheel chairs is underway. A separate Queue line would be maintained for PwDs and Senior Citizens for smooth voting.

A total of 4 uniform and standardized voter facilitation posters would be prominently displayed at all PS as follows:-

• • Details of PS in VFP-1
• • List of candidates in VFP-2
• • Dos and Don’t’s in VFP-3
• • Approved Identification documents and how to vote in VFP-4