Himachal: Chief Electoral Officer reviews preparations for LS elections in Hamirpur

Ensure wide publicity of various apps of the Election Commission of India and make all necessary preparations and arrangements for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections were the instructions of Himachal Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Maneesh Garg, who reviewed the preparations in Hamirpur district on Wednesday.

He said that along with the officers and employees, the representatives of the political parties should also be given training on the apps and they should be made aware of the guidelines of the Election Commission of India, a statement issued here said.

Garg said that in order to strictly follow the Model Code of Conduct in the district, all the teams should remain active all the time and there should be regular movement of flying squads in the field.

He took information about the latest status of various teams deployed in the five assembly constituencies of the district.

The chief electoral officer held extensive discussions with the officials regarding voter registration, possibilities of increasing the voting percentage and necessary arrangements at the polling stations. He issued guidelines regarding voting of service voters, disabled voters and voters above 85 years of age. Garg said that there should be adequate arrangements for training of the officers and employees regarding the election process.

He also gave instructions to organise various activities on a large scale under the 'Sweep' programme to increase the voting percentage in the district. The chief electoral officer said that special focus should be given to the polling stations, which had low voting percentage in the last elections.

After the meeting, Garg launched the signature campaign to motivate the common voters to vote. He also inspected some of the proposed counting centers and the EVM strong rooms.