Puducherry, Mar 15 (PTI) Puducherry CEO P Jawahar on Sunday requested all political parties in the union territory to abide by the MCC, which has come into immediate effect, after the Election Commission announced dates for the Assembly polls.
The elections for 30 Assembly seats in the union territory will be held on April 9.
The gazette notification for the polls would be issued on Monday, Jawahar told reporters here.
He said that the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) would be applicable to all political parties, candidates contesting the poll and government officials.
Jawahar appealed to political parties to abide by the MCC and “extend their cooperation for conduct of free, fair and peaceful polls. The poll should be free of hostility, acrimony and does not give room for bitterness.” He said the government staff have been warned not to participate in any political activity.
“Any complaint against any government staff would be dealt with sternly. Besides taking disciplinary action under Service Rules against those government servants participating in political activities, criminal action would also be taken,” the Chief Electoral Officer said.
Jawahar said that Puducherry registered 82 per cent polling in the last Assembly poll. “Our aspiration is that this time Puducherry should cross 90 per cent polling.” There are 9.44 lakh voters in the union territory as per final voters list published on February 14 having 30 Assembly constituencies which are spread over Puducherry (23 segments) Karaikal (five) Mahe and Yanam (having one segment each).
Women staff would exclusively manage 30 polling booths. Five polling booths (three in Puducherry and two in Karaikal) would be manned by young government staff, Jawahar said.
He said three polling booths (two in Puducherry and one in Karaikal) would be manned by government staff who are “persons with disability” and this was part of efforts to encourage them.
Jawahar said that the election department has sought sufficient strength of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) for election duty. Ten companies of CAPF have been deployed so far and 45 more companies would reach Puducherry soon.
The CEO said that the police have tentatively identified 321 areas in the union territory as vulnerable and these areas would be constantly monitored by periodically reviewing the ground level situation.
He said that with Puducherry “being an expenditure sensitive area from election point of view,” flying squads, static surveillance teams, video surveillance teams, rolling surveillance teams would function immediately.
State level and district level media certification and monitoring committees have been set up and have already started working for pre-certification of political advertisements and to prevent paid news.
Jawahar said, “This year, through targeted SWEEP activities, we aim to create a festive atmosphere around the electoral process where people can enjoy and actively participate in the journey of voting”.
District Election Officer A Kulothungan was also present at the press meet. PTI COR KH
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