Punjab Chief Electoral Officer encourages political parties to opt for virtual rallies in view of rising COVID-19 cases

Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Dr S Karuna Raju on Saturday encouraged political parties to opt for virtual rallies instead of physical rallies in view of rising COVID-19 cases across the country.

Addressing the media, Raju said, "Keeping in view of the emerging challenge of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, everyone is requested for mandatory adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour."

There would be no campaigning from 8 pm to 8 am, he added.

ECI has announced election schedules for five states of India. Punjab elections to 117 Legislative constituencies would be held on February 14 in a single phase.

As per the schedule, the issue of the notification is on January 21, 2022, and the last date of making nominations would be January 28, 2022, while scrutiny of nominations would be done on January 29, 2022. The date of withdrawal of candidature has been fixed for January 31, 2022. The date for polling has been fixed on February 14, 2022, whereas, counting will be done on March 10, 2022.

Raju said that as per the ECI directions, there will be no rallies till January 15, 2022, after which ECI will review the COVID-19 situation. He added that there would be zero tolerance for any violation and action under Disaster Management Act will be taken against anyone found violating COVID norms.

He further said that political parties setting up candidates with criminal cases would have to publish, along with the reasons for selection of such candidate, as to why another individual without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidate. "The details shall be published within 48 hours of the selection of the candidate in one local vernacular newspaper and one national newspaper and on official social media platforms of the political party, including Facebook and Twitter," he added.

He said that if any political party fails to submit such a compliance report with the ECI, it may amount to the Contempt of the Supreme Court.

Raju said that people can also check about the criminal antecedents of any candidates at 'Know Your Candidate' on the Voter Helpline Mobile application.

He said that in order to encourage maximum voter turnout in the upcoming Punjab Assembly Elections 2022, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has also allowed 80-years-old and above voters, persons with disability (more than 40 per cent) and COVID-19 positive patients to exercise their franchise via postal ballots.

Briefing on law and order, he said that 75 companies of CAPF have already been allotted to Punjab and 50 companies are reaching on January 10, 2022. As soon as, companies will arrive, they will start area domination operations.

After enforcement of the Model code of conduct, Raju immediately held a meeting with DCs-cum-DEOs and CPs/SSPs and issued directions to strictly implement the Model Code of Conduct and ensure its compliance in letter and spirit.

He has also brought all the ECI guidelines to the notice of the Chief Secretary and all other higher officials.

Raju said that an app named 'C-vigil' has been launched and the complaints registered in this App would be redressed within 100 minutes. In another IT app 'Suvidha', candidates can apply for various permissions for rallies, etc which would be dealt with quickly, he added. Static Surveillance teams and flying squads have been operational all across the state to check any violation of the model code of conduct. Raju said that adequate security forces have been deployed for conducting free, fair, and safe electoral processes in the state.

( With inputs from ANI )

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