Assembly Elections will be held in Celebrative Manner – DC Sasikanth Senthil
Mangaluru: “From April 17, the nomination of the candidates will begin. While filing the nominations five members including the candidate will be allowed into the nomination centre and only 3 cars of each candidate will be allowed into the premises. Nominations can be filed from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm from 17 April and the last date for the nominations will be on April 24. On 25 April the nominations will be scrutinized and the final date for the withdrawal of the nominations will be April 27. Polling will be held on May 12 from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm.”, said DC Sasikanth Senthil in a press meet held at the DC office here on April 16.
Addressing the mediapersons Sasikanth Senthil said, “From March 27, the Model Code of Conduct is in force and we have seized cash, flexes, banners and other materials. Rs 5.9 lakh cash has been seized and after verification by FS, SST and Police Rs 2.9 lakh has been released. The excise department has seized 793.97 ltrs of liquor. Two pistols have been seized by the city police. We have received 71 complaints of violation of the model code of conduct online out of which 68 have been disposed of. For Excise law violation 149 cases have been filed”.
DC Senthil further said, “The excise department has seized 793.97 litres of liquor and the police have seized 54 liters of liquor. The surveillance teams have seized 4560 banners, shawls and flexes, city police have seized 2 pistols and three weapons and the flying squad have seized flexes, bundles of shawls and 9 banners. We have deployed 36 static surveillance teams, 25 flying squads, 25 video surveillance teams and 5 excise teams. The police have filed 79 cases of bribe and 12 cases related to election expenditure”.
The DC also said, “On April 8, we had the epic registration campaign and it was successful. This time we have received 52000 applications out of which 46,000 applications were for new voters, 5000 for deletion and rest for other corrections. This time the elections will be conducted in a celebrations like manner since the elections come once only in five years and we should consider it as celebrations. Pink booths will be set up for women voters, aimed at empowering women and increasing their participation in the voting process. In 8 constituencies there will be 20 pink booths and five ethnic booths in Beltangady, Moodbidri, Mangaluru North, Puttur and Sullia. In the district, there are 10,300 physically challenged voters and they need transportation or companions to come to the polling booth. We have mapped the requirements and discussions are going on to arrange 500 wheelchairs.”
When asked about the election officers who exceed their limits, Sasikanth said, “There is no question of exceeding the limits. All the election officers are doing their duty well.”
ADC Vaishali and information officer Khader Shah were also present.