State Election Commissioner R. Palaniswamy on Tuesday held a meeting with collectors of Coimbatore, the Nilgiris, Tiruppur and Erode to discuss preparation for local body elections.
State Election Commission Secretary L. Subramanian, Principal Election Officer, Panchayats, P. Anandhraj, Principal Election Officer, Municipalities, K. Saravanan, Revenue Department officials and those connected with the conduct of elections participated.
Mr. Palaniswamy said that he had instructed the officials to read the Commission’s handbook, which detailed the conduct of elections to fill 1.06 lakh panchayat ward member posts, 12,524 panchayat president posts, 12,820 councillors posts in urban local bodies and chairpersons and mayors of municipalities and municipal corporations respectively.
The Commission had conducted a similar meeting a few days for the southern districts where the officials to be involved in elections underwent training. In Coimbatore, the officials from the four aforementioned districts would undergo training to ensure that the voters had a hassle-free voting experience.
They would have to start with checking if the roads leading to polling booths were motorable, if the polling booths were friendly to persons with disabilities, taking steps to fix cameras to monitor polling, and learning how to ready the control and ballot units among others.
Mr. Palaniswamy also said the Commission had conducted and would hold similar meetings in other parts of the State. And wherever the Commission held meetings, he had asked the officials with the experience of working during elections to put the learning to good use.
