Hyderabad: With the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) being enforced, the Hyderabad District Election Officer (DEO) has proposed a series of measures in an attempt to hold free and fair elections.
Setting up CCTV cameras outside polling stations, unlike previous elections where cameras were present inside the polling stations, is one of them. In addition to this, 868 micro observers are deployed at polling stations.
All the wine shops in Hyderabad district have also been brought under the CCTV vigilance.
“On the instructions of Election Commission of India (ECI), we are laying special focus on ‘4Ms — muscle, money, misinformation and MCC violations,” said an official from the Hyderabad district election authority.
For 15 Assembly constituencies of Hyderabad district, Central Armed Police Forces (CAPA) teams will be deployed and six groups have already arrived in Hyderabad district. The other surveillance tasks include deployment of flying squad teams (FST) and static surveillance teams (SST).
In each Assembly segment, six FSTs and six SSTs have been deployed. This in addition to two video surveillance teams (VSTs) and one video viewing team (VVT) per Assembly segment. A total of 18 integrated check-posts across Hyderabad district have also been set up.
Meanwhile, to avoid confusion at polling stations, the Hyderabad district election authority under the special summary revision of electoral rolls, has taken a special exercise to make sure, electors of one family cast their vote in the same polling station. “A total of 20,000 split votes, where electors of one family were allotted different polling stations have been corrected,” said an official.
The election authorities have also decided to focus on the ‘recheck your vote’ task and as part of this exercise, people have been advised to check their name in the electoral rolls and apply for claims and objections.
