EC appoints 15 special observers for poll-bound states

New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) The Election Commission has appointed 15 ‘special observers’ for the five poll-bound states, it was announced on Tuesday.It said that 15 former civil servants, who hold impeccable and brilliant track records of domain expertise and have past experience with election processes, have been named special observers for the current poll-bound states, and will be supervising and monitoring the work being done by the electoral machinery in their assigned states and ensure that stringent, effective enforcement action is undertaken based on intelligence inputs and complaints received through C-Vigil, voter helpline etc. These officers will oversee the entire poll processes as eyes and ears of the Commission on the ground to ensure free, fair and voter friendly elections, the poll panel said.At a briefing meeting with the special observers, CEC Sushil Chandra said that the overarching spirit of deploying them is to objectively assess the poll preparedness, identify the critical gaps, and guide the electoral machinery in the field to ensure impartial, inducement free, peaceful and Covid safe elections.He noted that each election is unique in itself, has its own logistics and challenges, yet higher voter turnout has to be encouraged.”Special observers thus need to be vigilant and be in touch with the Commission on a real time basis throughout the entire election process and should bring to the notice of the Commission any corrective measures required,” he said.While Manjit Singh and Somesh Goyal will be respectively the special general observer and special police observer for Goa, Pravir Krishna, Arun Kumar, and Rajesh Tuteja will be the special general, special police and special expenditure observer, respectively, for Manipur.Vinod Zutshi, Rajni Kant Mishra and Himalini Kashyap will be the special general observer, special police observer and special expenditure observer, respectively, for Punjab, Ram Mohan Mishra, Anil Kumar Sharma, and Madhu Mahajan the special general observer, special police observer, and special expenditure observer for Uttarakhand.Ajay Nayak will be the special general observer, Deepak Mishra the special police observer and B. Murali Kumar and B.R. Balakrishnan will be the two special expenditure observers for Uttar Pradesh.The special observers will soon be visiting their allocated states and start their work with state CEOs and Deputy Election Commissioners concerned. –IANSssb/vd