Nellore: All political parties told to follow election code strictly
Nellore: Prakasam district collector V. Vinay Chand has advised the leaders of various political parties to strictly follow the election code of conduct which will be in force till the completion of election process.
Addressing the representatives of different political parties at Prakasam Bhavan here on Monday, he said that cases will be filed against those candidates and who try to lure voters with cash or gifts.
Prior permission is a must for meetings and rallies and even these programmes should be held without causing any inconvenience to the public. He also said that they should not use the public address systems from 10 pm to 6 am, underlining the need for holding the elections in a peaceful atmosphere.
According to Mr Vinay Chand, candidates contesting for the Parliamentary seat are entitled to spend up to Rs 70 lakh and the limit for nominees for those in the Assembly poll fray is Rs 28 lakh. The parties should obtain prior clearance from the media monitoring certification committee, before releasing advertisements in the print or electronic media.
As many as 3,295 polling stations are being established for the voters to exercise their franchise.
The collector said a media centre would be opened at the collectorate, besides a 24x7 control room for the benefit of people to elicit information on voters list.
Joint collector S. Naga Lakshmi, DRO Venkata Subbaiah, representatives of the TD, YSRC, BJP, Congress, Jana Sena, CPM and CPI participated in the meeting.
In Eluru, West Godavari SP M. Ravi Prakash, in a meeting with the police officers, check posts have been set up at inter-state and intra-district level to avoid illegal transportation of cash, gold ornaments, liquor etc.
Meanwhile, the authorities are carrying out awareness programme among voters on usage of EVMs and explaining the functioning of VVPATs.
Rajahmundry sub-collector C.M. Sai Kanth Varma reviewed the ongoing awareness programme with the authorities concerned. The authorities demonstrated the functioning of ballot unit, control unit and vote verifiable paper audit trail.
Elsewhere, Kakinada district collector Karthikeya Misra said that the electoral personnel should video record in political meetings and all parties should be given equal importance in the matter.
He said that only persons who have got permission from Election Commission would be allowed in polling booths. Kakinada RDO G. Rajakumari said that the electoral personnel should provide drinking water at polling stations.
