From Our Correspondent
Agartala: Unlike previous elections, the Election Commission would ensure rights of each polling personnel, said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ashutosh Jindal.
Speaking to media at Civil Secretariat here on Sunday, the CEO said that all possible arrangements would be made so that polling personnel, key workforce in holding election could exercise their democratic right.
Around 20,000 polling personnel would be required to conduct the 2013 Assembly elections in 3018 polling stations. They are supposed to cast their votes in postal ballots and postal ballots will be supplied well before the polling.
Jindal said around 2000 Micro Observers will be required to conduct the election in smooth way. As of now, the state has 1500 Micro Observers and the poll panel exploring all options to address the shortage of Micro Observers. They will assist the EC appointed Observers.
This time, the state election machinery would not supply mobile phone to the Presiding Officers. “The EC plans to provide a lump-sum amount to each Presiding Officers to perform the duty on the day of polling”, he said.
Hinting at deploying of enough security forces in the run up to the elections, Jindal said additional companies of Central Para Military Forces (CPMFs) would start arriving at least ten days before the polling. According to sources, the Centre will send 110 companies of CPMF to the poll bound state to ensure free and fair elections.
Jindal further said, the Expenditure Observers would start coming to the state by January 21 next. Altogether ten Expenditure Observers have been engaged to monitor the expenditure of the candidates during the electioneering.
The ten Observers include Shyam Dhar, Rajat Mitra, Aloke Nag, Alok Agarwal, Sankar Kumar Haider, R. Sriram, Dipankar Mukhopadhyay, Goutam Kumar Mandal, L. Dhandem and Pinaki Mukherjee. Most of the Observers are from Indian Revenue Service (IRS).