ECI Team To Review Poll Preparedness Of Odisha Govt

Bhubaneswar: A six-member team of the Election Commission of India (ECI) led by the Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, which arrived in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday evening, will review the poll preparedness of the Odisha government for the ensuing Assembly and Lok Sabha elections on Thursday.

“We are here to carry out a review on the level of preparedness for the general elections and the State Assembly elections. We will be briefing the media later after the review is over,” the Election Commissioner said after the arrival of his team at Biju Patnaik International Airport in the evening.

The Election Commissioner is accompanied by the Deputy Election Commissioner Chandrabhusan Kumar; Director General (Expenditure) DK Sharma; ADG (PIB) Sefali Saran; Director Nikhil Kumar and Secretary Rakesh Kumar.

As per the schedule, the team on Thursday will have separate meetings with different political parties in the first session. Later it will have a review meeting on the poll preparedness with the district collectors (designated as returning officer), the Superintendents of Police and senior district officials.

The team in the afternoon session will have a meeting with Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) at his office in presence of senior police officials, nodal officers and senior officials of the Central para-military forces.

On February 15, the team will have a review meeting with the chief secretary, Director General of Police (DGP) and senior officials at the State Secretariat here.