ITANAGAR, March 11 � With the date for elections to the 60-member Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly being fixed by the poll panel which is to be held along with Lok Sabha polls on April 9, the State�s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Chandra Bhusan Kumar today said that the mountainous State of Arunachal has adopted a multi-pronged approach for a free, fair and transparent conduct of both Parliamentary and Assembly elections.
Addressing a press conference here this afternoon, the CEO told that all the district election officers have geared up for conduct of simultaneous election with the appointment of returning and assistant returning officers against all Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies.
He said that out of 2,158 polling stations, almost 1,500 of them will be covered through digital and video cameras on the polling day and 100 of them will be live fed through web casting. All necessary preventive measures are being initiated so that no untoward incident relating to election happens on that day, he averred.
Moreover, to maintain law and order problems in the State, the Home and Police department has taken necessary steps. The Election Commission has deputed two awareness observers � one each for Arunachal East and Arunachal West Parliamentary constituencies � to oversee the complete process and expenditure in the State. He said the projected cost of election expenditure in the State will be around Rs 50 crore.
The CEO also divulged that 23 Assembly constituencies spread over six districts namely, East Siang, West Siang, Lower Subansiri, Kurung Kumey, Papum Pare and East Kameng have been identified as expenditure sensitive constituencies. He also informed that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used in both Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. The notification for both elections will be issued on March 15.
Earlier in the day, Arunachal Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) Satyendra Garg told media that apart from State police forces, 34 companies of Central paramilitary forces sanctioned by the Ministry of Home Affairs are going to be used for area domination, election campaigning, handling of law and order situations, guarding of election related officers and materials etc during the entire poll process.
The DGP also said that district security plan for pre-poll, polling day and counting day arrangements are being finalized by the districts police. Critical and sensitive polling stations will be covered with available Central paramilitary forces and State armed forces.
He also told that election expenditure monitoring mechanism has been made functional and flying squads having Magistrates and video equipments have also been made functional in all Assembly constituencies.
