In view of the fast approaching elections, the Election Commission is gearing up to ensure smooth conduct of the polls.
The Election Commission has approved 30 additional auxiliary polling stations (PS) for Puducherry, the change of location for 26 PS and the change of nomenclature for 17 PS, said Chief Electoral Officer T Srikanth.
The commission has also appointed an Income Tax nodal officer for Puducherry and Tamil Nadu and has notified sub-nodal officers of the same. Suresh has been appointed as the nodal officer for Puducherry and Murugan for Karaikal. The control room would be operational from March 12 and can be reached on the toll free number 18004256669 and fax number 04428253659.
Additional Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)would be required if the number of candidates contesting the polls goes up by 15, the CEO said. Totally, 6782 applications for the enrolment of voters had been received during the special camp on Sunday, of which 4806 were from Puducherry and 1976 were from Karaikal. Following verification, the EROs would submit the report on Tuesday. The last date for the disposal of the applications is March 28.
The election commission has ordered 20,000 VVPATs for the polls in the country and Puducherry could be one of the constituencies where the commission may implement it, he said. The VVPAT is a machine attached to the EVMs, which allows the voters to verify that their vote has been cast in the way they wished.
AAP Man Booked
Police have filed a case against a functionary of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) here on Sunday under relevant sections in the Pondicherry Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act.
The functionary, identified as S Bala, secretary of the Mudaliarpet unit of AAP, was booked after flying squad official L Vimalan found him displaying a digital banner of the party.
The police department also filed 15 cases against Congress, DMK, NR Congress, under the same Act, for displaying banners and posters in violation of the model code.
Govt Code Violation
The Election department is conducting an inquiry into the complaint of a Model Code of Conduct (MCC) violation by the Puducherry government for appointing Nominal Mazdoor Roll (NMR) employees in PWD.
This was one of the 22 complaints of MCC violation received by the Elections department, said Chief Electoral Officer T Srikanth.