Mysuru : State Election Commissioner P N Sreenivasachari said the election to the Taluk Panchayats and Zilla Panchayats may be held either in the second or third week of February and the corresponding notification is likely to be issued in the second week of this month.

He was addressing media persons, after holding a meeting of the officials from the districts under the region about the preparations for the elections. Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police and heads of the Excise departments of Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan, Chamarajanagar, Kodagu, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Chikkamagaluru districts took part in the meeting.

The officials were directed to take all necessary steps to make the elections peaceful. They were given information about preparing the electoral lists, setting up of polling booths, inspection of electronic voting machines, and selection and training of staffers for the election process.

He said, a Belagavi region-level meeting had already been held recently and similar meetings would be held on January 6 at Bengaluru, and on January 8 at Kalaburgi before the issuance of the notification.

Stating that the elections will be held in two phases, he said, the limitation for election expenses of the candidates will be Rs 1 lakh for ZP constituencies and Rs 50,000 for TP.

“The voters list has been updated up to December 27 last and it will be published on January 11. The process of addition and deletion of the names in the list will be allowed till the last date for filing of nominations. All officials have been directed to minimise errors in the list,” he said.

He said, the State government had been directed not to effect transfers of any official, either in the police or other departments, in view of conducting the elections in a fair way. “State-level observers will be appointed to oversee the election process. Even though the process needs the service of many officials, the police personnel of the State are sufficient and no police force from neighbouring states will be sought. However, the officials concerned have been asked to set up check posts at the borders of the districts,” he said.

Reacting to a question on the controversy regarding reservations, Sreenivasachari said, the reservations of the ZP and TP constituencies have been decided by the Election Commission itself, based on the respective deputy commissioner’s recommendations.
“There was a problem with the reservation to ‘general women’ in eight constituencies. The issues have been ironed out by effecting some changes,” he added.