The full Election Commission, led by Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi, will meet with representatives of political parties and senior government officials here on Monday to review preparations for Assembly elections.
In the morning, Dr. Quraishi and Election Commissioners V.S. Sampath and H.S. Brahma will hold a two-and-a-half-hour-long meeting. Later, they will hold discussions with District Collectors and Superintendents of Police and then with Chief Secretary S. Malathi, Principal Secretary (Home) K. Gnanadesikan and Director General of Police Letika Saran.
Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar told reporters on Saturday that on Tuesday, the CEC and the Commissioners would go to Puducherry.
Taking a dim view of a village panchayat president of Bhuvnagiri taluk in Cuddalore preparing a fake muster roll for payment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), he said District Collectors had been directed to undertake random checks of muster rolls.
The State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department had been directed to ensure that the malpractice did not recur.
The Cuddalore Collector had been advised to remove the panchayat president, Sankar, from office. An arrest warrant had been issued against him. He was said to be absconding. The administration had already taken action and the local body functionary could no longer issue cheques.
On the seizure of cash in different places of Erode and Madurai districts, the CEO said that in Madurai, Rs.3.5 crore was seized.
In Erode, Rs.50 lakh was impounded from a car, following which the residence of the car owner was raided. Documents of transactions of Rs.11.5 crore had been seized, as the person in question could not explain reasons for such transactions.
Mr. Praveen Kumar reiterated that the confidentiality of voters would be protected and cameras, to be installed in select polling booths, would not be able to capture the act of any voter exercising franchise.
Of about 64,000 polling booths, cameras would be kept in 10,000 booths, where neither Central forces nor micro observers are posted.
