District Election Officer and Commissioner, GHMC, M. Dana Kishore has issued a slew of instructions to the returning officers to take measures for improving the voting percentage in Hyderabad district.
Not more than 40% voting was recorded in 240 polling stations of the city during last assembly elections, he said, and expressed concern about low voting in a district with high literacy.
The overall polling percentage during last polls was only 53% in the city.
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He asked the officers to request the political leaders to assign booth level agents, and take up widespread campaigns for increasing voter awareness. Constituency level meetings should be organised with booth level officers and agents between November 2 and 5.
The DEO also asked the officials to submit reports about the basic infrastructural facilities provided at the polling stations, before November 2, and provide facilities such as ramps, power, toilets, and drinking water by November 15.
Model code of conduct should be strictly implemented, Mr.Dana Kishore cautioned, and asked the officials to act upon complaints about large scale duplicate voter enrolment instigated by certain political parties.
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In a separate meeting with political parties, the DEO directed all the returning officers not to delay issue of permissions for meetings and campaign by political parties. Permissions should be given within 24 hours, and if delayed, the reasons should be explained to the political parties.
This was in response to the complaints by the political party leaders that permissions were being delayed for more than 28 hours.
The DEO instructed the ROs to conduct regular meetings with the political parties to have better coordination and interaction.
He requested the political parties to depute one representative for each booth to work together with the BLOs.
The DEO also discussed advertisement rates, online applications for permissions, and others.