State to step up vigil during polls

Karnataka’s election and police authorities held their first coordination meeting today to enforce the model code of conduct, after the Lok Sabha polls were announced.

Chief Electoral Officer M N Vidyashankar and Bangalore Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari held a meeting with officials to fine-tune the strategy and adopt a coordinated approach in implementing the code, which came into effect from 1500 hrs yesterday.

Vidyashankar told reporters later that a zero-tolerance policy would be adopted against electoral offences and authorities would leverage technology, including Web-enabled techniques, to step up monitoring.

Returning Officers would be “refreshed” on electoral offences. There are 46,050 polling stations in Karnataka, which has 28 Lok Sabha constituencies, where elections will be held in two phases on April 23 and 30.

 

Bidari said police official of ACP rank would be in-charge of each assembly segment of Parliamentary constituencies while a DCP rank officer would hold charge in four to five segments to monitor poll-related issues.