The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Kerala, has asked the District Electoral Officers to monitor illegal money transactions in view of the Lok Sabha election.
They need to initiate steps to check it, says Sanjay M. Kaul at a meeting in Kochi on March 23 (Saturday) to review the election preparations in six districts including Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Thrissur, Palakkad, and Malappuram.
The officers will monitor suspicious banking transactions. The Income Tax department has set up a special control room to check use of unaccounted money as part of the election. Stringent checks have to be carried out in the district borders. The CCTV surveillance in check posts will be intensified, he said.
The CEC, Kerala, asked the electoral officers to ensure the elections are held without giving room for complaints. Priority has to be given for senior citizens at the time of voting. Steps should be taken to ensure that children are not involved in the election campaign, he said.
The talk shows organised by television channels in connection with the election cannot be held without prior permission in view of the tension reported in some of the shows. The meeting discussed security arrangements and logistic requirements in the districts. Various aspects related to the electronic voting machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail devices were also discussed.
Robots for election awareness programmes
Mr. Kaul launched the deployment of robots for ensuring maximum participation of voters in the electoral process as part of the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation initiative. It will be deployed in the awareness programmes to be held in Thrissur district. District Collector V.R. Krishna Teja said it will be arranged the robots will be arranged in major malls and other places in the district. The awareness videos on the need to participate in the election process will be displayed through the robots.
