Haryana EC starts arrangement for PRI polls

Haryana State Election Commission has started making arrangements for conducting the fifth general elections of Panchayati Raj Institutions in a fair, free and transparent manner in the state, State Election Commissioner Rajeev Sharma said today.
Apart from security personnel, 1,07,675 employees would be deputed on election duty in the state even as 1,256 supervisors and 1,065 Duty Magistrates would also be deputed, Sharma added.
Polling would be conducted in three phases starting January 10, 2016 in Haryana, where 1,10,09,317 people are eligible to cast their ballot, of which 59,04,696 are men and 51,04,621 are women.
He added that general and election expenditure observers would also be appointed to monitor the conduct of the election procedure and the expenditure being incurred by candidates apart from the regular monitoring being done from the headquarters.

A perfect communication plan would be set up at headquarters as well as district level, to enable concurrent intervention and mid-course correction on poll day. Videography of sensitive or hyper-sensitive polling stations would also be carried out, Sharma said.
He said that complaint cells would also be established at the office of State Election Commission and at district headquarters to receive complaints pertaining to elections and their speedy disposal.
He said that all basic amenities such as ramps, first aid facility, shelter, drinking water and toilets would be provided at polling stations so that the electors, including senior citizens, women and physically challenged persons, may not suffer any inconvenience.

Meanwhile, Haryana SEC has directed voters who have been issued electoral photo identity cards for Assembly and Lok Sabha elections and their electoral photo identity card numbers in the Panchayat voters list, to produce the cards when they come to the polling stations to cast their ballot for PRIs elections.