Party flags should not be hoisted in public places, says Cuddalore Collector

P.Seetharaman

CUDDALORE: 

        The Election Commission has instructed political parties not to hoist party flags in public places. Even flag posts installed in public places should not have any colouring and should be white washed, said P. Seetharaman, Collector.

          Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, he said political parties would have to remove the flags (not flag posts) within 48 hours, failing which the officials would do it themselves from Thursday. So far, over 5,600 flexi boards and posters put up by various political parties were removed by the officials and 62 cases of poll violations booked.

           The Collector further said that there were 47 polling stations having more than 1,200 voters, two with over 1,400 voters and one with over 1,500 voters. With the consent of the Election Commission, auxiliary polling stations would be set up in those areas. There were 186 critical polling locations and 199 critical polling stations in the district, the Collector said. As regards vehicle-checks and seizure of cash, the Collector said that it was being done with the objective of eliminating misuse of money in elections.

Read more »

Laptops to monitor voting in Cuddalore District

Collector P.Seetharaman explaining the functional aspects of laptops in polling stations, in Cuddalore on Tuesday.

CUDDALORE: 

         Laptops with either inbuilt cameras or external web cameras will monitor the day-long voting process in as many as 199 critical polling stations in Cuddalore district.

           Besides recording the happenings inside the polling station, the laptops would also transmit the images to the District Election Officer, the Chief Electoral Officer and the Election Commission, according to P.Seetharaman, District Collector. Before starting the training programme for officials here on Tuesday, the Collector told reporters that the laptop would be positioned in such a way that the whole interior of the polling station would be covered.

        Since, it would be placed far away from the voting compartment it could not capture the image of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) The Collector also said that from the laptops the voting trend could also be obtained on an hourly basis. It would be extremely helpful to know whether there is any excessive polling towards the closing hours, as had been learnt from experience. As in the case of EVMs, all the laptops would be subjected to the scrutiny of the election observers, Mr. Seetharaman said. Additional Collector (Development) K.Veera Raghava Rao said that before putting to use all the laptops would be incorporated with the new format suitable only for the poll process.

             The software would be foolproof as it could not be hacked and could not get corrupted because of the anti-virus features. The bytes recorded in the laptops would have restricted viewers.

Read more »

Manifestos should reflect consumer rights

CUDDALORE: 

            On the occasion of the International Consumer Day, observed on Tuesday, the Consumer Federation-Tamil Nadu has appealed to political parties to incorporate the rights of consumers in their election manifestos. Federation executive general secretary M.Nizamudeen told The Hindu that the forum had sent representations to all parties, the Governor and the Chief Electoral Officer in this regard. It called for formation of separate department for consumer protection. It suggested streamlining of the public distribution department because in the existing setup the cooperative department, Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation and District Supply Officer were functioning independently with varied power structure. All these departments should be merged and brought under the public distribution department.

Read more »