Monday: Sep 23, 2019, 7:22 PM
Voters should exercise their right to vote without any fear: DEO
Ludhiana: 23rd September 2019: (Punjab Screen Bureau)::
The nominations for the Dakha by-election started today and on day one, no candidate filed their nomination papers. District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Mr Pradeep Kumar Agarwal informed that the candidates can file their nomination papers from 11 am to 3 pm till September 30, 2019. The scrutiny of nomination papers would be done on October 1, 2019, while the withdrawal of nominations can be done till October 3, 2019.
The polling of votes would be done on October 21, 2019, while the counting would be on October 24, 2019. He informed that there are 220 polling stations in Dakha assembly constituency-68, and there are 1,84,306 general voters along with 780 service voters.
He has also directed all department heads to ensure that political slogans, banners or advertisements etc on public properties should be removed immediately (within 24 hours in case of government buildings, within 48 hours on public places and within 72 hours on private properties). He also directed that it should be ensured that no permission should be granted to any candidate/political party for holding election canvassing, propaganda/public meeting from government rest house/dak bangla or any religious place.
Mr Agrawal clarified that candidates can spend a maximum of Rs 28 lakh for this by-election. He also informed that different cells such as flying squad, static surveillance team, expenditure monitoring cell, MCC and complaint cell, have been set up ay district level as well as constituency level. To check paid news in newspapers, a district level MCMC committee has also been set up.
He directed the owners of printing presses to ensure that at the time of printing any election material, name of publisher, name of person who gets it printed, quantity etc should be mentioned on the material without fail. He said that if they fail to comply with these directions, then action under section 127 A(2) of RP Act 1951, would be taken against them.
He also appealed to the public to exercise their right to vote in a free and fair manner without any fear. He also appealed to the political parties and prospective candidates to not use election material made of plastic.