Admn, police gear up for LS bypoll

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 30

Even as all parties other than the Congress are yet to finalise their candidates for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, civil and police administrative officials said they were fully geared up to ensure a peaceful conduct of byelections.

There are a total 16,18,512 voters, including 84,32,99 men and 77,51,73 women and 40 third genders. The polling would be held on May 10 with counting on May 13. The constituency has 32,668 voters above 80 years of age besides 444 above 100 years of age. As many as 23,649 voters are in the age group between 18 and 19 whereas 10,526 physically challenged, 73 NRIs and 1,852 service voters in the constituency.

Deposit arms at police stations

The orders under Section 144 of the CrPC have been issued to get the licensed arms deposited at nearest police station or arms dealers... nine flying squads in each Assembly constituency will keep unauthorised activities in check. —Jaspreet Singh, deputy commissioner

Foolproof security arrangements

Interstate nakas have been working actively and numbers of these nakas would be increased in days to come. Foolproof security arrangements would be ensured especially at sensitive and critical polling booths. —Kuldeep Singh Chahal, Commissioner of police

District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Jaspreet Singh and Commissioner of Police Kuldeep Singh Chahal briefed them about the arrangements and preparedness being put in place for smooth conduct of bypoll as the model code of conduct has come into force from March 29 in the entire district, which would remain in process till completion of elections.

Jaspreet Singh said there were total 1,972 polling stations in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha Constituency with 738 urban and 1234 rural polling stations. He said complete web casting would be ensured at all polling stations while there are 44 model polling stations to be setup besides one exclusive polling station for women in each Assembly constituency. A special polling station will be operated and managed by the Divyangs at local Pingalwara, he added.

The District Election Officer also informed that as many as 184 supervisors and 1,972 booth level officers would be deputed for smooth polling. He also pointed out that youngsters attaining age of 18, or those who were left out earlier in enrolling themselves, could get their votes made by April 20. Besides, all political parties, bankers and printers/publications have already been apprised about the model code of conduct as per the instructions of Election Commission of India. He said nine flying squads in each Assembly constituency had been deputed keep a close check on unauthorised activities.

Jaspreet Singh said the filing of nominations would start from April 13 as well as the start of work by the monitoring teams. The nominations will continue till April 20, scrutiny will be held on April 21 and the papers could be withdrawn by April 24. The Election Commission has fixed Rs. 95 lakh as poll expenditure limit for each candidate. The C-vigil cell with 1950 helpline besides a complaint cell has also been setup.

The DC also mentioned that the orders under Section 144 of the CrPC had also been issued to get the licensed arms deposited at nearest police station or arms dealers. Assembly Consituency Nakodar is the largest segment with polling station while Phillaur is the largest Sssembly segment with maximum number of electorates i.e. 1,99,176 and Adampur is the smallest segment as per number of electorates i.e. 1,64,707.

Answering a query as to whether the deployment of cops in Amritpal chase could affect election duties, Commissioner of Police Kuldeep Singh Chahal said that the force had sufficient number of police officials for handling both matters. He said that interstate nakas had been working actively and numbers of these nakas would be increased in days to come.

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