District Election Officer Reviews Panchayat Poll Preparedness in Theog

Shimla, May 21: District Election Officer Anupam Kashyap reviewed preparations for the upcoming Panchayati Raj elections during a meeting held in Theog block on Wednesday.

The meeting focused on arrangements related to transportation of polling parties, availability of vehicles and buses at the block level, boarding and lodging facilities for polling personnel, and timely settlement of payments and bills related to election duties.

Officials were also directed to ensure proper law and order arrangements for conducting peaceful and fair elections. Discussions were held regarding monitoring of expenditure incurred by Zila Parishad candidates through the Candidate Expenditure Reporting System (CERS).

The District Election Officer instructed officials to ensure installation of CCTV cameras, webcasting facilities and videography at sensitive and highly sensitive counting centres to maintain transparency during the counting process.

Directions were also issued for providing minimum essential facilities at polling and counting centres, deployment of reserve and standby vehicles, and submission of verified details of elected Panchayat representatives in the prescribed format after completion of the counting process.

Anupam Kashyap said the Panchayati Raj elections would be conducted in a completely transparent manner and warned that negligence in election duty would not be tolerated. He asked all departments to work in coordination to ensure smooth, transparent and fair conduct of the election process.

SDM Theog Dr. Shashank Gupta, DSP Siddharth Sharma, Block Development Officer Naresh Chand and other officials were present during the meeting.