Officers must ensure strict adherence to Model Code of Conduct: DEO Aashika Jain

SAS Nagar: The District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Mrs Aashika Jain held a meeting with various departmental officers falling under Lok Sabha Constituency Sri Anandpur Sahib and Patiala of the District SAS Nagar to gear up for the Lok Sabha Elections and for strict compliance with the Model Code of Conduct.
While presiding over the meeting, District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Mrs Aashika Jain said that the election process will be completed in a completely unbiased and free environment

SAS Nagar district falls in two parliamentary constituencies, with a total electorate of 790,499

Mrs Jain said that arrangements on all booths should be complete. She instructed all the officials that the model code of conduct should be implemented in principle. Compliance with the directions of the MCC should be ensured and all the action related to the MCC should be done on time and diligently. She said that any complaint related to the election code can be lodged on the toll-free number 1950 or the C Vigil App.
Apart from that, she said that the telephone contacts of all cells should be in working condition and the duties of the employees should be continuously engaged on these telephones. She said that after the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, the campaign boards installed by various political parties should be removed from government buildings/private buildings in due time and no government/private property should be misused. She asked the officials of all the departments to submit compliance certificates after removing the campaign boards installed by various parties in due time following the guidelines of the election code.
She also said that violation of the MCC will not be tolerated at any cost and strict action will be taken against the violators of the election code. She ordered the concerned departmental officials to provide a detailed report regarding the ongoing development works immediately.
The District Election Officer said that after the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, no new development work can be started in the district and no new beneficiary of any welfare scheme can be added. She said that only those development works can be kept operational, for which the work order has already been issued and the required material has arrived.
Mrs Aashika Jain directed the officials of Punjab State Powercom Limited and the Local Government Department to ensure the immediate removal of pictures of political party leaders from government properties like poles, electricity substations and other buildings. She also said that if there is any violation, the responsibility of the concerned officer will be fixed. She also instructed the executive officers and block development and panchayat officers to ensure that the instructions given by the Election Commission of India regarding development works and welfare schemes were followed.
The Deputy Commissioner said that a grievance redressal cell has been set up for the redressal of election-related complaints, where complaints can be made regarding violations of the election code. They asked the officials to strictly follow the instructions issued by the Election Commission so that the elections can be conducted transparently.
During the meeting ADC (J) Viraj S. Tidke, Commissioner Municipal Corporation Navjot Kaur, ADC (Rural Development) Sonam Chaudhary, Assistant Commissioner Inderpal, SDM Mohali Depankar Garg, AC (J) Davy Goyal, Joint Commissioner Municipal Corporation Kiran Sharma, SDM Derabsi Himanshu Gupta, SDM Kharar Gurmander Singh, Election Tehsildar Sanjay Kumar and other officials of various departments were present.
She added that Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar district has two assembly constituencies with Sri Anandpur Sahib and one Constituency Derabassi with Patiala Parliamentary Constituency. There are 274014 voters in the Kharar constituency, 227953 voters in the SAS Nagar constituency and 288532 voters in the Derabassi constituency.