Be it regular employees or those hired on contract basis, the staff who have violated the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) have been mercilessly shown the door by the district election authorities.
Twelve contract staff have been removed from service and a case has been registered against one of them. Among the 12 regular employees who are facing action for either partisan attitude or exhibiting negligence, eight have been suspended and disciplinary action recommended against four. Fourteen staff in other categories have also been removed. As many as 36 village volunteers have also been shown the door for violating the MCC norms.
The police have so far seized ₹1.65 crore in cash, 14,149 litres of liquor valued at ₹89.26 lakh, 71316.5 grams of metal (gold and silver) worth ₹16.20 lakh. These apart, freebies and other material worth ₹1.49 crore, meant for distribution ahead of the elections, were also seized from across the district.
Collector and District Election Officer Pravin Kumar inspected the coastal constituencies of Sullurpeta, Satyavedu and Gudur on Sunday.
4,500 police personnel drafted for duty
Superintendent of Police Krishna Kanth Patel announced that 4,500 police personnel have been drafted for poll duty across the district, while mobile parties will continuously patrol on all the 286 routes. The department has also roped in retired police officers, ex-servicemen, NCC and NSS volunteers to meet the requirements.
“Apart from the Central forces, additional manpower has also been drawn from Tamil Nadu to ensure tight control over the situation. Section 144 will be in force till the polling process is completed and we will not hesitate to register cases in case of law and order problem,” Mr. Patel warned.
