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New Delhi : The Election Commission of India (ECI) on March 22, 2021, reviewed poll preparedness for the General Elections to the Assam Legislative Assembly 2021. The review meeting was chaired by the Chief Election Commissioner of India Sunil Arora in the presence of Election Commissioners ushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar at Tezpur as also later at Guwahati.
The Commission met Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police, and other senior officers of all districts going to polls in the first and second phase of elections, as also nodal officers of the Enforcement Agencies. Specific review of Covid arrangements was done with Chief Secretary Jishnu Barua and also issues with DGP Assam B Mohanta, according toa PIB release.
Sr Deputy Election Commissioner and Incharge of State of Assam at ECI Dharmendra Sharma, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain along with Special General Observer S Srinivasan, Special Police Observer Ashok Kumar, and Special Expenditure Observer Neena Nigam interacted with State officers. CEO, Assam, Nitin Khade, State Police Nodal Officer Deepak Kedia, State Force Coordinator, CAPF Sonal V Mishra, Divisional Commissioners of Upper and North Assam and DIGs of North-Eastern, Northern, Eastern, Central and Central-Western ranges participated at the review meeting held at Tezpur.
Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora directed all the officials to ensure that elections in the State of Assam are conducted in a peaceful, free and fair and safe manner with high voter turnout. rora reiterated that this time Special General and Police Observers have been associated with randomisation of State and Central Armed Police Forces to jointly decide the election security plan.
Sushil Chandra, Election Commissioner, urged to expedite seizures and asked the departments to establish money trail linkages specifically related to election expenditure. He directed the investigative agencies for better co-ordination and collaboration of data, in order to improve their searches and seizure operations during the election period.
Rajiv Kumar, Election Commissioner, asked all the agencies to continue with their vigil efforts even after the 3-phased election is over in the state of Assam, as the adjoining state, West Bengal will still be having elections. The border check posts need to be functioning strictly, till the election results, in order to deter any illegal goods transfer /crossings across the state borders, he emphasised.
The ECI team reviewed poll preparedness of Phase I districts at Tezpur while DCs and SPs of second phase districts joined the meeting virtually. DIGs and Divisional Commissioners also apprised the Commission of the activities undertaken as yet. The Commission also met the Nodal officers of Central and State Regulatory Agencies like Excise Department, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Income Tax, Enforcement Directorate, Narcotics Control Bureau, Railway and Airports authorities, Postal Department, Security agencies like CISF, Railway Police, BSF, SSB, State Level Bankers’ Committee etc to review in detail the strategy to curb misuse of money/drugs/liquor & freebies distribution during the election.
Assam is scheduled to go to polls in Three Phases with polls due on March 27, April 1, and April 6, 2021, for the 126 ACs across 33,530 Polling Stations covering more than 2.33 crore electors.