Special Teams To Be Formed For Smooth Conduct Of Polls In Odisha: CEO

Bhubaneswar: Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Surendra Kumar on Saturday said special teams will be formed for smooth conduct of the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Odisha scheduled to be held this year.

“To ensure smooth conduct of the elections, there are some key aspects like static surveillance team, excise monitoring, daily law and order reporting, vulnerability mapping, critical booth analysis, force deployment plan on which we have prepare ourselves from now,” Kumar told mediapersons after presiding over the poll preparatory meeting here.

For proper monitoring of these key aspects during the simultaneous elections, nodal officers at the state level are appointed in accordance with the guidelines of the Election Commission (EC), he said.

“In Odisha, the Director General of Police (DGP) will appoint two senior police officers as nodal officers to deal with the law and order and election expenditure. The two nodal officers will work in coordination with the office of the CEO. They will submit their daily report to the CEO, which will be sent to the EC. This apart, the EC has launched ‘Cvigil’ mobile application for citizens to report any violation of the Model Code of Conduct,” the CEO pointed out.

He further said that since political parties usually try to influence the voters during the elections, a surveillance team, excise team and a team of the flying squad will be formed to keep a strict vigil on the use of liquor and monetary transaction.

“The surveillance team will keep an eye on the monetary transaction and take necessary action as per the standard operating procedure (SOP) of the EC,” he added.

On the identification of the critical booths, he said the process will begin 7-10 days before the elections and the deployment of forces in these booths will be decided by the EC observer.

Among others, DGP RP Sharma, Crime Branch ADG Santosh Upadhyay, additional chief secretary, Home, Asit Tripathy and senior officials of the Income Tax and Excise were present at the meeting.