Udupi : As per the notification of State Election Commission, election would be held for 155 Gram Panchayats in Udupi district on May 29. All officials concerned should take steps to conduct the election fair and peaceful, said Deputy Commissioner R Vishal.

Chairing a preparatory meeting in this regard on Friday, the DC said that the time table of the election has already been announced. The regulations laid by the Commission should be followed strictly, he said.

The DC will issue the notification on May 11. May 18 is the last date for filing nominations. The scrutiny of nominations will be held on May 19. May 21 is the last date to withdraw the nominations. The election will be held on May 29 between 7 am and 5 pm.
There are a total of 7,38, 608 voters in the district, of which 3,53,190 are male voters and 3,85,418 are female voters.

The total number of seats is — 2,398, general— 1161, women— 1237, Scheduled Caste —186. Among the 186 SC seats, 159 are reserved for women.

Among 197 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes, 166 are reserved for women and ST men or ST women can contest for the rest 31 seats.

A total of 582 seats are reserved for Backward ‘A’ class among which 323 are reserved for women and the rest 259 seats could be contested by Backward ‘A’ class men or women.

As many as 145 seats are reserved for Backward ‘B’ class, among which 79 are reserved for women and the rest 66 could be contested by Backward ‘B’ class men or women.

In the general category, there are 1,288 seats and 510 are reserved for women and general category men or women could contest for the rest 778 seats.

Cooperative Societies Mysuru Division Joint Registrar K M Asha has been appointed as the Observer for Udupi district GP elections.

Elections officers are deployed in 155 Gram Panchayats, 62 returning officers have been deployed in Kundapur, 59 in Udupi and 34 in Karkala. A total of 171 assistant returning officers have also been deployed.

The number of assistant returning officers are: Kundapur -67, Udupi – 68 and Karkala – 36.

The district has a total number of 907 polling booths. The total staff required are 4,989. The booths have already been kept ready for the elections. The provision to purchase materials for the election, as suggested by the sanction letter, has been given to Tahsildar, the DC said.

Tahsildar and DySP should work in coordination to maintain law and order, the DC said and directed the flying squad to be alert. The administration should be ready to handle any complaints at any time. Also, he told the excise department officials to set up check posts, by coordinating with the police and revenue departments.

The election code of conduct will be brought into force from May 10 and will be in effect till June 7. The elected representatives should be rightly informed on the usage of government vehicles and the vehicle provision given to the local elected representatives should be withdrawn.

The DC told the officials to provide proper information to the needy. He also directed officials to submit written complaints in case of any violation of rules.

He further told the officials concerned to ensure the access to basic facilities at the polling booths. The Tahsildar has been asked to furnish the details regarding the requirement of vehicles towards election duty. Orders will be issued to prohibit fairs and shandy markets on the day of the election.

Superintendent of Police Annamalai detailed upon the security measures. He said that out of 907 polling booths, 131 have been identified as sensitive, 59 as hypersensitive and 54 as Maoist affected areas.

Zilla Panchayat CEO Kanagavalli was present.