Shimla, Sept 24
The team of twelve members from Election Commission of India today gave signal, here, to hold Himachal Pradesh State Assembly polls before onset of snowfall in the higher altitude districts of the state.
Addressing a press conference at state guest house Peterhoff here today Chief Election Commissioner of India Rajiv Kumar said that political leaders who met with the delegation during this visit apprised ECI about onset of snowfall in three tribal Assembly constituency by Nov 18 & 19. The ECI would decide about Enforcement of model code of conduct at Delhi after returning from here however it would keep in mind the date of snowfall in the state. “We will consider the inputs of political parties while declaring date of election,” they stated.
He said that ECI is already started the process to ensure money free elections, as central agencies are being already assigned the task, CEC informed adding, that recent raids conducted against mining mafia was parts of this campaign. Kumar said that for the first time Braille enabled EVMs would be introduced in state assembly elections to facilitate the specially (Devyang) voters and this expansion would be further advanced by introducing sounds on the EVM to spell the name of candidate.
He said that ECI couldn’t not play any role in electoral bonds to political parties as Supreme court has pronounced detail verdict ending any further scope of changing this provision. ECI said that all the Government officers who are on the same seats would be reshuffled soon. He said that order has been given to Chief Secretary and Director General of police to immediately remove the government officers who are holdings their posts continuously for last three years.
ECI couldn’t stop the entry of criminal and corrupt people if they get elected by the voters however strict provisions have been made. Under drive of Know your candidate (KYC) all candidates and political parties have to publish the criminal cases pending against them to the public moreover political parties have to explain the reason before allowing such candidate to contest. ECI also launched an Apps in which all political parties and candidates have to place similar information about their criminals precedence and background for the public.
To ensure the free and fare election e-vigil being sounded in which citizens could place their information on the app about , if any election rigging and malpractices. ECI also amended the the electoral age for participating in the poll as for the first time all young who have completed 18 yrs of age by October 1 2022 to be enrolled and could participate in the polling. One could inform the Commission after attaining 17 yrs of age as on the inputs ECI would automatically enrol new voters for completing 18yrs of age.
To achieve the high turnout several programs were launched by ECI in Himachal Pradesh under campaign SVEEP drive.
CEC said that state have around 68.64 lakh population and till now there are about 53.83 lakh voters including 27.23 male and 26.48 lakh female voters including 54700 specially abled and 67793 service electoral. State have around 127662 and 1294 voters who are octogenarian and centenarian.
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