Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi to visit Gujarat on Saturday

Ahmedabad, 31 January 2014

Deputy election commissioner Vinod Zutshi will be in Gujarat on Saturday to supervise the level of preparedness as far as Gujarat is concerned pertaining to the 16th general elections.

Zutshi will meet Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer and other officials to discuss various issues, and apprise them of the updated directives of the Election Commission of India.

Later, he will also held a meeting with the representatives of different political parties.

Zutshi also will hold a meeting with Secretary (Home) and top Gujarat Police officials to discuss deployment of forces during elections and related issues.

Host of issues including voters’ list, human resources, EVMs, polling parties, videographers and law & order arrangements are likely to be discussed with each of the district magistrates.

Zutshi will be addressing a press conference in the evening.

Issues likely to be in agenda of Zutshi

There were complaints that officials posted in home constituencies may try to use their influence for a particular candidate and may temper with the voting results.The EC has decided to address all such issues and ensure shifting of all those officials above the rank of Sub Inspectors in Police and Patwaris in Revenue department, who have completed three years of posting in particular district or their home constituency. If the state government does not comply with the Election Commission’s direction in the given time, the Commission has the power to affect the transfers after imposition of the Model Code of Conduct.

Zutshi is likely to remind the state administration that the compliance report of the EC’s letter addressed to all chief secretaries vis-a-vis the transfer/posting of officers must be sent by February 15. The letter dated January 9, sent by K Ajaya Kumar to all the chief secretaries of the state, says “the commission, in its task of conducting free and fair elections has followed the consistent policy to ensure that officers, who are connected with the conduct of elections in the states, do not serve in their home districts or places where they have served for long and decided that no officer connected with elections, directly or indirectly, should be allowed to continue in the present district of posting:- (a) If she/he is posted in her/his home district (b) If she/he has completed three years in that district during last four years or would be completing 3 years on or before May 31.

Zutshi is likely to stress on massive awareness campaign for upcoming elections and asked the government departments to launch it as soon as possible.

Zutshi may announce that this time EC has introduced home delivery of Photo Voter Slip through concerned Booth Level Officers, two days before election and availability of drinking water and public toilets at polling booths.

He may direct the police department to prepare the list of polling booths which had witnessed trouble in the previous elections. List of the persons who were found making trouble in the previous elections will be sought from the State police. He is likely to direct the concerned police officials to prepare a district security plan and vulnerability mapping to identify the critical polling stations. He is likely to ask all District Election Officers (DDCs) to ensure that error-free electoral rolls are prepared in time and copies of these are provided to the political parties before their final publications. He is likely to stress that multi-tier training programmes should be taken up to keep the concerned officers and security personnel abreast with their duties and guidelines of the Election Commission to conduct fair and free elections.

Zutshi is likely to ask the District Election Officers to convene interactive sessions with the members of political parties and candidates to keep them informed about the model code of conduct and direct for strict monitoring to check adherence to these norms. A workshop for representative of political parties in mid of February is likely to be planned.

He is likely to invite members of the public to check the voters’ list using the EC’s software to check the existence of duplicate names, and may announce helplines.