26 checkposts of district on radar election officials

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The district administration has raised an alert to keep a close vigil on the movements through 26 checkposts existing on the border areas of the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district in the backdrop of the Lok Sabha 2024 elections.

Acting upon the orders of the Election Commission of India (ECI) through the State Election Commission (SEC), the collectors of all eight districts of Marathwada and neighbouring districts participated in the virtual (online) meeting held on Thursday.

The district collectors attending the meeting include Deelip Swami (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), Ayushprasad (Jalgaon), Dr Shrikrishna Panchal

(Jalna), Jalaj Sharma (Nashik), Deepa Mudhol (Beed), Siddharam Salimath (Ahmednagar-Ahilyanagar), Dr Kiran Patil (Buldhana), Dr Sachin Ombase (Osmanabad-Dharashiv) along with the all superintendents of police (SPs) and tehsildars (of all the above districts).

The meeting had a discussion on the conduct of election in different phases in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalna, Jalgaon, Dharashiv, Beed, Buldhana, Ahilyanagar, and Nashik districts and the security and prohibitory measures to be taken during the election period.

The meeting also discussed the preparation of a joint action plan to conduct nakabandis at the borders in the above districts, ensuring fair implementation of the code of conduct and maintaining law and order situation judiciously.

ECI order

The meeting reviewed the guidelines of the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the conduct of nakabandis in border areas of the district; transportation of liquor; exchanging of information about the externed criminals and prohibitory measures taken in respective jurisdiction; checking of double entry of voters in the list; managing postal ballots etc.

The returning officer and district collector

Deelip Swami said, “ There will be ‘nakabandi’ on all routes leading to our district from other neighbouring districts. A team comprising officials and personnel from police, revenue, state excise, and other departments will be deployed at these checkpoints. Besides, the Department of Forest (DoF) will also keep a vigil on their checkposts existing in forest areas.”

“ The team camping at these posts will keep a watch on all movements. They will detect vehicles illegally transporting liquor (of all types) or money and implement strict checking during the liquor ban period. Meanwhile, all the assistant election returning officers (AERO), sub-divisional police officers (SDPO), tehsildars, state excise officers, and deputy district election officers have been instructed to exchange the information amongst each other for immediate action during the election period,” he stressed.