CS holds preparatory meeting for General Elections

By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 17 Jan: Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh has instructed all the officers to complete the work for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections 2019 as per the schedule given by the Election Commission of India.
Chairing a meeting regarding the preliminary preparations for the General Elections 2019 at the Secretariat on Thursday, the Chief Secretary instructed all the officers present to seek guidance from Chief Electoral Officer on the subject. He also advised making budget arrangements for paying honorariums for home guards and their food on time.
Chief Electoral Officer Saujanya directed that coordination meetings be held with the neighbouring states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh on training of police jawans on time. DGP Anil Raturi asked IG, Law and Order, Deepam Seth to take action in this regard soon. He was also hopeful that the proposal on giving honorariums to home guards would be cleared expeditiously. He said that, for election duties, 12,000 home guards would be required, for which talks with Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh had been held. He also sought the details of strong rooms so that their security could be reviewed.
The Chief Electoral Officer also instructed the Excise Commissioner to hold daily/weekly monitoring regarding liquor. She also asked the power department to ensure uninterrupted supply to all the polling stations. The drinking water department was also asked to ensure uninterrupted supply to polling stations. The rural development department was asked to hold voter awareness programmes with self help groups, mahila mangal dals, etc. The IT department was asked to ensure services by maintaining close coordination with BSNL and TSP to the polling stations.
The Chief Electoral Officer disclosed that, for election related information, the 1950 helpline number has been established in each district. A close watch on election expenditure and goings-on would be kept by the officers. The education department was also instructed to ensure that the buildings of educational institutes used for polling purposes were repaired, including toilets, ramps, water supply and power supply.
The PWD was instructed to repair all the state highways/ link roads and open up the closed roads. The health department was asked to ensure availability of health teams during the various phases of polling and to provide necessary medicine and first aid boxes to polling parties.
The forest department was instructed to ensure transportation on forest roads and also communication facilities in shadow areas through departmental wireless sets. The social welfare department was asked to ensure that differently abled voters were included in the voters list and arrangements made for their transportation to the polling stations. Information about the inclusion of service voters should be included in the end of the voters list provided. The NCC and NSS were expected to hold voter awareness programmes through SWEEP and also help the differently abled voters on polling day.
Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi, Principal Secretary Anand Vardhan, Director General, Law and Order, Ashok Kumar, IG Deepam Seth, Secretary Harbans Singh Chugh, Additional Chief Electoral Officer V Shanmugam, Secretary, Rural Development, Hari Chand Semwal, Excise Commissioner Deepender Chaudhari and other officers were present at the meeting.