Punjab polls: Electoral boss asks secretaries to be ready

Chandigarh: Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, Mr V.K.Singh has sought the support and cooperation of all the principal and administrative secretaries of the state for the forthcoming Punjab Vidhan Sabha General elections in 2017.

Mr Singh urged the secretaries to advise all their heads of departments to provide adequate manpower and other resources, as and when requested by the District Election Officer or the Returning Officer.

Taking to the media, he said that the Election Commission of India’s advisory regarding transfer and deployment of officers’ complete compliance is still awaited. Therefore, all have been requested to issue necessary orders and send a compliance report within two working days.

The state election commissioner said that the misuse of buildings and other government structures by the political parties and candidates for campaigning purposes can be controlled if the responsible government officer keeps vigil and doesn’t allow any poster to be placed at any government property (building, street, electric poles, trees etc.) even before the elections are announced.

The state election commissioner asked its officers to launch a special campaign to check that all such campaigning material, if placed, is immediately removed once the election is announced.

In case a government building or structure continues to display campaigning material after the elections are announced, the head of that particular office will be personally held responsible for it.

Administrative Secretaries of all the departments are required to respond to all communication from ECI and CEO office in a time bound manner.

Office of the CEO has a strict timeline for responding to any letter from ECI. Hence, it is important to have a fast and reliable mode of communication and all are requested to send response through a unique email id, he added.