Bhubaneswar: The Chief Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday asked all Collectors and Superintendents of police (SPs) to be absolutely impartial, transparent, accessible to all parties equally and ensure level playing field during the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Odisha.
Not only at their level, the Collectors and SPs asked to send the message to the junior officials working at cutting edge level, Chief Election Commissioner of India Rajiv Kumar said while speaking to media persons here.
A team of ECI led by Shri Kumar was on a three day visit to Odisha, which concluded on Saturday. During their stay, the panel held a series of meetings with political parties, collectors, SPs, enforcement agencies and state government officials.
Shri Kumar said instructions were issued to the collectors and SPs to make sure that there will be no violence in the electoral arena, keep strict vigil on the vehicles used to ferry cash and strict separation between official & political events.
There will be three-tier security arrangements at district EVM-VVPAT warehouses at all times. All the EVMs will be sealed properly and the details of votes polled at polling stations will be informed to the polling agents to maintain transparency, he said.
Further, paid news & candidates using their own publications & channels for campaigning will be watched & added towards election expenses, he pointed out.
The officials were asked to ensure that government machinery or office buildings should not be used for promotion of party events and advertisements, the CEC said.
During the review meeting, he said, the enforcement agencies were told to take strict action against use of money power, liquor, drugs, and freebies during elections.
The agencies will have a strict vigil over illicit online cash transfers through wallets while the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) asked to transfer cash during designated hours in designated vehicles only.
The airstrips and helipads in the state will be monitored by the concerned agencies. They will check cargo movement through non-scheduled chartered flights and share the information with other enforcement agencies, he stated.
Shri Kumar said all the enforcement agencies work in a cohesive and coordinated manner and a dedicated portal has been developed for this purpose.
The tenure of Lok Sabha will end on June 16, 2024 while the tenure of state Assembly will end on June 24, 2024. So the elections to both Lok Sabha and Odisha Vidhan Sabha will be completed before that, he said.
Giving a detailed presentation on the electoral roll of Odisha, he said a total of 3.32 crore voters including 1.68 crore male, 1.64 crore female and 3380 transgender voters are there in Odisha.
A total of 37,809 polling booths will be set up in Odisha for the elections, of which 4,340 booths will come up in urban areas and 33,469 in rural areas. Webcasting will be done at 22,685 polling booths, Shri Kumar said, adding 156 check posts will be set up in 15 Odisha districts sharing borders with four other states.
State’s voter turnout in 2019 was 73.29 per cent. The ECI is hopeful that the turnout will be more in the upcoming polls. Kumar appealed to the voters of Odisha to come forward and participate in the festival of democracy by exercising their franchise.
He said that the ECI has always been in favour of transparency and would comply with the Supreme Court’s order on electoral bonds.
“The ECI was also a party in the (electoral bond) case. You might have seen our affidavits. The commission has always stressed on two things – transparency in terms of information flow and involvement. We are in favour of transparency. When the order has come, we will take action as directed by the Supreme Court,” said the CEC during the press conference in Bhubaneswar.
