Kaliabor administration gears up to conduct free, fair and safe polls

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KALIABOR: The Kaliabor civil subdivision administration in Nagaon district has completed all arrangements for free, fair and safe election in the 89 Kaliabor LAC that falls under the jurisdiction of Kaliabor civil subdivision, in the first phase on March 27.

A total of 1,46,832 voters, of which 73,304 are male and 73,522 are female, will exercise their democratic right on March 27. Of these electorates, six are transgender and 3,972 are new voters in age group of 18 to 19 years. Total 780 voters are in the age group of above 80 years and 604 are persons with disability. The administration has made arrangements to provide them the facility to cast their vote from home. Total 101 voters in the essential service group will cast their vote in specially arranged polling booths.

Meanwhile, the subdivision administration has formed a SVEEP team (Systematic Voter's Education and Electoral Participation Program) with Professor Basistha Kalita and teachers Rituparna Borkotoky, Rupanjoli Bordoloi, Shankar Hazarika and Joonmoni Sarma. The SVEEP team has also launched a signature campaign with the motto 'I pledge to vote' and posters in the entire subdivision area to create awareness among the voters for maximum participation in the poll. The SVEEP team carried out an awareness campaign, particularly in the tea garden areas, and interacted with the labour community while they were engaged in their duty in the tea gardens. Woman voter icon Jina Rajkumari took part in the awareness campaign in all the prominent rural areas while prize money quiz competitions were also organized among the women voters which received tremendous response from the voters.

Meanwhile, Election Observer (General) Ajay Kumar Sarma and Election Observer (Expenditure) Harshad Sudhir Vengulekar have been supervising and monitoring the poll process in the constituency. The Static Surveillance team, assisted by police, till date has seized an amount of Rs 7,99,510 from different locations. According to Subdivisional Officer (civil)-cum-Returning Officer of Kaliabor, Pabitra Kumar Das, the administration has arranged district toll free number 1950 and toll free number 18003451201for election campaign monitoring call centre.

Election Officer of Kaliabor, Barbie Hazarika, while talking to The Sentinel on Wednesday afternoon, informed that a total of five candidates filed their nomination papers on the last date of submission of nomination papers on March 9. They are Keshab Mahanta (AGP), Prasanta Saikia (Congress), Bhaskar Sarma (Independent), Mukul Boruah (Asom Jatiya Parishad) and Ramesh Pradhan (Independent). The last date for withdrawal of nomination papers has been fixed on March 12.

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