Hyderabad: Ahead of the upcoming Telangana assembly elections, the Central Election Commission (ECI) has issued orders appointing 119 observers in as many constituencies to the state for the counting of votes in the Assembly elections. It is learnt that 166 general, police, and expenditure inspectors are already present in the state to monitor the preparations for the assembly polls to be held on Nov 30.
The counting of votes will be held on Dec 3. Besides the elections observers, the Election Commission has also sent three more special observers for monitoring at the state level, said Telangana State Chief Election Officer Vikas Raj. The CEO Telangana was speaking at a press conference organized at the Election Commission office in BRK Bhavan in Hyderabad on Thursday.
He said that the Election Commission has made arrangements to “fully connect the counting centers with CCTV cameras” as part of surveillance mechanism. The details of each round of counting on the Dec 3rd will be announced only after the approval of the examiner, the CEO said. He said that they are setting up three-tier security at the counting centers.
"All the arrangements for conducting the elections are going on in full swing. The checking of EVMs will end on Friday. The distribution of voter information slips is almost complete. They have the information on how to vote and how to use ballot units,” the CEO said. He said at present, the election commission is conducting voting from home along with postal ballot voting of employees.
Also read: Telangana assembly elections: EC to conduct checking of EVMs today, tomorrow
“We are setting up convenience centers for election officials in all districts and constituencies. They should drop their ballot papers in the ballot boxes. We are sending ballot papers electronically to service voters,” he said. The CEO said that 9,813 people have downloaded the voter slips so far. “The state government has written a letter seeking permission to pay DA dues to the employees.
The Election Commission has sought an explanation from the state government on the Rythu Bandhu issue. We have sent both these points to the Central Election Commission." said Vikas Raj. Over the security arrangements for the assembly elections, the CEO said that along with the 40,000 police forces of the state, they have sought an additional 25,000 policemen from the border states.
Besides, 375 companies of Central Armed Forces have been allocated to the state by the Central Election Commission, he said. “Where there are two polling centers in the same area, central forces will also be deployed in problematic areas. The vehicles transporting EVMs will be linked with GPS,” the CEO said. Over seizure of property, the CEO said that so far, they have seized property worth Rs 669 crore during the inspections.
This includes cash worth Rs 260 crore and freebies worth Rs 81 crore. “We have registered more than ten thousand FIRs on encroachments and 774 FIRs for violating the code of conduct of elections," the Telangana CEO added.
