NAMSAI, 21 Dec: A team of the Election Commission of India (ECI), headed by Deputy Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar Sahoo, and including ECI Director Pankaj Srivastava, Principal Secretary Arvind Anand, Secretary NT Bhutia, and Section Officer Niraj Dwivedi, arrived here on Thursday to assess the poll preparedness of the state for the upcoming simultaneous elections in 2024.
A review meeting was conducted by the office of the chief electoral officer (CEO), in collaboration with the office of the Namsai district election officer. It was attended by CEO Pawan Kumar Sain, OSD to CEO Ira Singhal, Joint Chief Electoral Officer Liken Koyu, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Shania Kayem Mize, and all 25 district election officers (DEO) of Arunachal Pradesh.
The CEO welcomed the ECI team, and urged the DEOs to “update the status of ongoing special summary revision of electoral roll pertaining to form disposals, removal of demographically similar entries, photo similar entries, dead voters, and multiple entries. Data on webcasting of polling stations, issued arm licences, and steps planned to get the firearms deposited as per laid down guidelines were sought from each DEO.
The CEO emphasised on “appointing 16 nodal officers, in the line of the ECI’s instructions, besides sector officers
and designated sector police officers in every district,” and announced that he will conduct review meetings on the progress of the poll preparedness with all the DEOs once every week.
Speaking on the occasion, DEO Manoj Kumar Sahoo advised his fellow DEOs to be “involved in the electioneering processes by not delegating everything to the next-in-command officer.” He informed that “the current preparatory review meeting will be followed up by a full-fledged meeting by the ECI in the state in January 2024.”
Sahoo focused on “the importance of imparting periodical thorough training to the officers and officials for error-free conduct of elections,” and advised the DEOs to “analyse the law and order preparedness with the enforcement agencies in the districts.”
The presence of a strong room in the district – standalone or combined with counting centre – was also discussed.
ECI Director Srivastava urged the DEOs to “tighten the election expenditure monitoring mechanism of your respective districts,” and suggested to them to “go through the latest compendium on the same.”
“Formation of a district grievance committee in the district and data entry in election seizure management system for real-time updates, and circulars relating to frisking of passengers at airports were also highlighted,” the CEO office informed in a release.
All the DEOs presented the status of the poll preparedness in their districts.
Earlier, the CEO was on a tour to obtain firsthand information on the poll preparedness in Longding and Tirap districts from the DEOs and the EROs concerned, it said.