Shillong: The Chief Electoral Officer of Meghalaya convened a meeting at the Main Conference Room, Secretariat, Shillong, to discuss on matters relating to finance and banking during the Model Code of Conduct period. The meeting also discussed the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by the Indian Banks’ Association which will become part of the checking procedure of the polling machinery to ensure smooth circulation of clean and genuine notes by banks during the upcoming elections.
No third party agencies or individuals shall be allowed to carry cash under any circumstances; instead the banks will engage cash vans of outsourced agencies or companies to carry the currencies under the strict guidelines. The outsourced agencies or companies shall also carry letters, documents etc, issued by the banks giving details of the cash released to them and carried by them for filling the ATMs and delivering cash at other branches, banks or currency chests. An identity card carrying personnel will guide the cash dissemination process by the respective agencies.
The aforesaid procedure has been stipulated so that the authorized officials of the Election Commission (District Election Officer or any other authorized official) can intercept the outsourced agency or company’s cash van for inspection, during the period of election. The agency or the company should be in a position to clearly show the collected cash to the Election Commission through document and also by physical inspection of the currency notes. For the purpose of replenishing the bank’s ATMs with cash, these cash vans will do the delivery to other currency chests and branches on the bank’s instructions. As part of the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) program of the Election Commission of India, the Chief Electoral Officer, Meghalaya also informed that various voter awareness materials will be shared with the Banks and Post Offices. And they have agreed to circulate it for maximum publicity through their branches across the state, to promote voter participation in the General Election to the Lok Sabha, 2024, stated a press release.
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