The Greater Chennai Corporation has started preparations for the election of Chennai Mayor and 200 councillors. The election is likely to be completed in three months. Announcement in this regard has not been made yet.
Senior officials of the civic body held a preliminary meeting on Tuesday.
Officials have started checking the condition of polling stations at 200 divisions of the city. Physical checking of 5,700 polling stations has started and will be completed this week.
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“We are checking the physical condition of the buildings. We will remove from list all that are demolished or in unusable condition,” said an official.
Work on appointment of nodal officers for various tasks, including allocation to Deputy Commissioners, has started. An election cell has been formed in Chennai Corporation Revenue Department to coordinate all activities.
Draft roll of Assembly election will be released on November 1. Based on that, the electoral roll for local body election will be prepared. BEL engineers will carry out first level checking of EVMs. The work will be completed by November 15.
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Former councillor S. Mangala Raj said the officials should ensure that all electors are aware of the changes in polling stations during the election.
“During the previous elections, many residents have been unable to vote in areas where polling stations were changed to a new building. Information about changes should be shared with all the residents,” said Mr. Mangala Raj.
Local administration in Chennai, which covers 426 sq.km area, has been carried out by a special officer’s council for the past five years, instead of the elected members of the GCC council. Once the council is elected, debates and resolutions pertaining to civic issues would be held every month in the presence of 200 elected councillors, commissioner and the mayor.