Assuming office as the new Collector of Vellore, V. Palanikumar on Tuesday said steps would be taken to put in place proper security arrangements at the 390 “critical” polling booths in the district for the forthcoming Assembly elections. The district has sufficient manpower for handling the election process.
Talking to reporters shortly after taking over charge from C. Rajendran, Mr. Palanikumar promised to take all steps to ensure free and fair polls in Vellore. Prior to this, he was Director of Treasuries and Accounts in Chennai and was earlier the Collector of Coimbatore and Tiruvallur districts.
“A total of 13,924 persons were required for election works. But, we have 14,353 polling personnel. We have sufficient manpower to handle the election process in the district,” he said.
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Noting that the Superintendent of Police and revenue officials had identified 390 booths of the total 2,902 to be critical, he said special security arrangements would be put in place at these booths, which were located in around 190 places. “Three training programmes should be held for polling personnel. The programmes will be held on March 27, April 3 and 12,” he said. While three expenditure observers have arrived in the district, seven general observers have been appointed, he added.
Mr. Palanikumar said a total of 90 complaints had been received for violating the model code of conduct. Replies for 40 complaints have been received.
Superintendent of Police, Vellore, T.S. Anbu and District Revenue Officer E. Saravanavelraj were present.
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