Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Feb 16: A team from the Election Commission of India led by its Director General Dharmendra Sharma reviewed the poll preparedness in the State in a series of meetings as well as visits to polling stations over the last three days.
Sharma was accompanied by Senior Principal Secretary Narendra N. Butolia and Secretary Ajoy Kumar Verma.
"The team reviewed the follow up action taken in the background of the directions given by the Election Commission during its last visit in January. Further, the team took stock of the situation and assessed the progress made on the provisions of assured minimum facilities at polling stations, creation of auxiliary polling stations and targeted SVEEP (Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation) activities especially for low voter turnout polling stations," the Chief Electoral Officer's office said.
"Special focus was laid on facilitating voting of PwD and senior citizens above the age of 80 years, maintaining COVID-19 protocol, vulnerability mapping, training of personnel and ICT platforms, formation and functioning of election cells at the district level, electoral roll update and assessment of the law and order situation on ground," it said.
The ECI team visited some polling stations of Nagaon and Kamrup districts and later conducted a meeting with officials of 11 districts namely Kamrup, Kamrup (M), Jorhat, Karbi Anglong, West Karbi Anglong, Dima Hasao, Nagaon, South Salmara, Dibrugarh, Biswanath and Dhubri at Assam Administrative Staff College yesterday. On the same day, the ECI team also held a meeting with the heads of the enforcement departments, where senior officers of NCB, SSB, Income Tax, ED, CISF, SBI, Post Office, Customs, Excise etc. participated.
Today, the ECI team held a meeting through video conferencing with the Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police, Returning Officers of the remaining 22 districts to evaluate the situation and poll preparedness of these districts. Thereafter, the ECI team conducted a meeting with the senior Police and CRPF officers to take stock of the prevalent law and order situation.
