SEC readies for part 2 of panchayat polls

LUCKNOW: Barely five days after the curtains came down on part one of panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh, the State Election Commission (SEC) on Saturday issued the notification-cum-programme for second round--polls for the posts of village pradhans and members.

LUCKNOW: The second part of the panchayat election process has begun in Uttar Pradesh barely five days after the curtain fell on part one. The state election commission (SEC) on Saturday issued the notification-cum detailed programme for the polls to the post of village pradhans and the village panchyat members here.

As many as 11.42 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the village panchayat election. The number outstrips the population of most countries.

The village panchayat elections, like the recently concluded zila and the kshetra panchayat polls, will also be held in four phases.

The voting for the first, the second, the third and the fourth phases will take place on November 28, December 1, December 5 and December 9, respectively to elect 58,909 village panchayats in 74 of the state’s 75 districts. The threetier panchayat polls have been put on hold in Gautam Buddh Nagar.

The counting of votes will take place on December 12. Releasing the poll programme, state election commissioner SK Agarwal said the code of conduct had come into effect in the entire state with the issuance of a notification putting a ban on transfer of government officials and employees, save with the commission’s permission in exceptional cases.

He said both the commission and the state government had requested the union home ministry for making at least 250 companies of central para-military forces available to UP to help conduct the pradhan elections in a more peaceful and fair manner. He said western UP was especially communally sensitive, requiring more security arrangements.

“Home minister, Rajnath Singh has assured us of positively considering our demand for the Central forces,” he said.

The SEC said that based on its experience of the recently concluded zila and kshetra panchayat member elections, the commission would take even tougher measures to ensure peace and transparency during the village panchayat polls. “The hyper-sensitive polling booths will be video-graphed round the clock till the voting is over. The ballot boxes, after voting, will be under the strict vigil of CCTV cameras,” he said, adding, “Even the candidates or their representatives on request to the DM, will be allowed to keep a watch on the ballot boxes for which CCTV cameras will be arranged separately for them.”