The senior-most officials connected with the process of June 23 by-elections to four assembly constituencies have assured the electorate of a free and fair election and appealed to them to come out in large numbers and press the buttons on EVMs.
Interacting with the media in the office of DM (West) the returning officers of the two constituencies, Shailesh Yadav and Asim Saha (SDM-Sadar), DM (West) Debapriya Bardhan and SP (West) Jagadishwar Reddy said that all arrangements have been made for a free and fair election and voters should come out to exercise their right to franchise freely and fearlessly.
Spelling out the measures taken already the seniormost officials said that prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPc have already been clamped in all the constituencies and this will remain in force till June 23rd and again will be imposed on June 26th, the day of the counting of ballots.
“All the 111 polling stations in 48 locations under both the constituencies of Agartala will be guarded by central police and paramilitary forces and the state police and TSR will have no role to play in them; altogether 17 police stations have been identified as critical and hyper-sensitive and one section each of central police and paramilitary forces will be on duty in them,” said the four senior officials.
They added that offices of SDM, DM and police authority as well as election observers will be there for telephonic contact to register complaints and a response will be given within five minutes. The DM (West), SP and ROs asserted that there will be no reason to fear and people will be able to come out and vote freely and fearlessly.
