Kupwara/Baramulla: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Ahmad Khan, today exhorted upon the officers to work with added dedication and proactive approach for smooth and successful conduct of District Development Council and Panchayat by-elections.
He said this while reviewing election preparations and winter preparedness in the districts during meetings with the officials.
Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, P.K. Pole; Inspector General of Police, Vijay Kumar; District Development Commissioner, Kupwara, Anshul Garg; SSP Kupwara; ADC Handwara and DDPEO were also present in the meeting held in Kupwara.
Advisor directed the concerned officers to ensure availability of all basic amenities at the designated polling stations including uninterrupted power and water supply and toilet points besides making proper heating arrangements. He asked for keeping ration and LPG available at polling stations wherever required. He also directed for preparing a comprehensive Snow Clearance Plan for all roads leading to polling booths in the rural as well as urban areas of the district besides making proper arrangements for accommodation of candidates, polling staff, police and security personnel.
Advisor directed the Executive Engineer, Mechanical to dispatch required snow clearance machines at the vulnerable places instead of keeping them at district headquarter.
Advisor also reviewed status of election preparations including location of polling stations, establishment of strong rooms, election training, deployment and return of polling staff. He directed the SE PDD to formulate a special plan for power supply at all polling stations and ensure availability of gen sets wherever necessary. He also directed Executive Engineer, PHE to provide tanker service to polling booths wherever tap water is not available.
Reviewing the winter preparedness, Advisor directed for keeping buffer stock of transformers and poles available to combat any contingency during winter. He directed SE to strictly adhere to the power schedule and publicize the schedule well in advance so that people do not face any inconvenience on this account.
Advisor asked for conducting Rapid COVID test for employees detailed for election duty besides emphasizing the need for strict adherence to COVID SOPs.
Earlier, DDC briefed the Advisor about the election preparations and winter preparedness through PowerPoint presentation.
Advisor was informed that there are 385 panchayat halqas in the district, 14 DDC constituencies, 32 Sarpanch and 782 Panch vacant seats in the district for which 1181 polling stations have been established at 581 locations. About 5000 polling staff has been deployed for election which is being given proper election training phase wise in the district.
Regarding snow clearance, the DDC informed that Snow Clearance plan has been already put in place in the district and required machinery and manpower is also kept in state of readiness.
Meanwhile Khan also visited Baramulla district where he chaired a meeting of concerned officers to take stock of arrangements in place to deal with winter season besides reviewing election preparedness for DDC, ULB and Panchayat By-elections.
Advisor stressed upon the concerned officers to ensure that all the requisite arrangements are put in place in time so that the people may not face any inconvenience in winters. He stressed upon the PDD authorities to strictly adhere to the curtailment schedule and provide adequate power supply during the schedule hours.
Advisor also directed the concerned authorities to keep men and machinery ready so as to tackle any emergency that may arise due to snowfall.
Earlier, District Development Commissioner, Dr G N Itoo, briefed the Advisor about various arrangements that have been put in place by the district administration in this regard. He informed that arrangements pertaining to heating, lighting and other vital necessities have already been put in place in all the designated polling stations.
Chief Engineer PDD, SSP Baramulla, heads of various line departments and Executive Engineers among other concerned officers were present on the occasion.
