As the State government has given its go ahead to conduct the mandal and zilla parishad elections, the State Election Commission is gearing up to issue notification for the polls between April 18 and 20.
The schedule of the elections to be held in phases will be issued after a meeting of the district collectors and superintendents of police on April 18. Over 1.57 crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise in the elections to the district and mandal level local bodies and the election will be held through ballot papers.
Telangana State Election Commissioner V. Nagi Reddy convened a meeting with Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi, Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy and other senior officials on Monday to discuss about the law and order and other arrangements for the smooth conduct of the elections.
Police force
Speaking to reporters later, he said the Election Commission had given the voters lists as well as the details relating to polling stations to all the recognised political parties. Discussions were also held with neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka officials seeking deployment of police forces.
The poll would involve deployment of returning officer to each of the mandal parishad as also for the zilla parishad territorial constituency at the rate of one returning officer each for three mandals which form part of the respective ZPTC.
The appointment of returning officers was expected to be completed by April 20 after which the Commission would finalise the dates on which the polls would be held for each phase. The commission, he said, would require a fortnight for the completion of the entire process and it would require services of 1.8 lakh employees who would be drafted for the purpose.
Voters on their part could enrol their names in the voters lists till the day when the notification for the polls would be issued, he added.
