VIJAYAWADA: With the State government not making arrangements for the first phase of panchayat elections that were earlier scheduled to be held on February 5 for which the nomination process was to begin on Monday, the State Election Commission (SEC) has rescheduled the first phase of elections. Hours after the Supreme Court cleared the decks for the conduct of elections, State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar revised the first phase of election to February 21.
In a notification issued on Monday, the Commission said it took the decision after receiving information from several quarters that necessary arrangements were not made by the district administrations to receive nominations from candidates as scheduled from Monday for phase - I of the elections, awaiting instructions from the government.
“The SEC came to a conclusion that the election process has been vitiated as the district administrations have not made arrangements for receiving nominations for the phase-I panchayat elections scheduled from Monday,’’ the SEC said.In the wake of this, the SEC said it rescheduled the first phase election as phase IV and as a consequence of this, the phase II, Phase III and Phase IV elections will become Phase I, Phase II and Phase III. Meanwhile, the SEC has reportedly written to the Union Cabinet Secretary to allot the employees of the Central government as well as Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) for the election duties in the State in the wake of the State government employees reluctance to perform duties citing the Covid pandemic and insisting that they will attend election duties only after getting vaccinated.
Subsequently, Ramesh Kumar also directed the District Collectors to give an indent for getting the services of the Central government and PSU employees for the election duties. “The Commission desires the District Collectors to undertake the election work without disruption by deploying the State government employees and members of State Corporations and other entities as a first priority. The Central government employees and members of PSUs shall only be used as a last resort if inadequacies persist with regard to poll staff,’’ the SEC said.
Meanwhile, the SEC had reportedly written to the Chief Secretary to transfer Principal Secretary (Panchayat Raj) Gopal Krishna Dwivedi and Commissioner M Girija Shankar apart from implementing its previous order of removing Collectors of Guntur and Chittoor and SP of Tirupati from election duties. Similarly, the SEC had earlier ordered removal of several police personnel in the State from the election duties.
Poll schedule (Revised)
Phase - I - February 9
Phase- II - February 13
Phase-III - February 17
Phase-IV - February 21
Schedule for phase IV election (Earlier phase 1)
Date of issue of notification and filing of nominations
(10.30 am to 5 pm) - February 10
Last date for filing nominations - Feb 12
Scrutiny of nominations - Feb 13
Appeal against rejection of nominations - Feb 14
Disposal of appeals - Feb 15
Last date for withdrawal of nominations - Feb 16
Publication of final list of candidates - Feb 16
Elections (wherever necessary) - Feb 21
Counting of votes and declaration of results - Feb 21 (from 4 pm)