Tamil Nadu

Meet to elicit views on use of EVMs in local polls

SALEM: State Election Commissioner D. Chandrasekaran held a meeting with officials to elicit their views on the need for introducing electronic voting machines (EVM) for local body polls in the State in future and reviewed 2006 polls.

He asked the officials to be aware of rules of local bodies’ polls and sought clarifications on technical issues that remained unsolved. He wanted to know on how the nomination paper of a woman candidate, who wanted to contest in the polls for Salem Corporation’s Reserved Ward 12, could be allowed after an objection was raised that she belonged to a forward community. Such technical flaws like issuing two caste certificates to one person should be avoided in future, he insisted.

As the local body poll is a continuing exercise, officials should be thorough in their knowledge about the polls and its conduct. The nuances of the law should also be known. A total of 215 candidates were issued show cause notices for not submitting their poll expenses. Those who would be found guilty would be debarred for three years from contesting. “Legal opinions are being sought on this issue,” he pointed out.

He said that 90,000 EVMs were needed to conduct polls for 1.30 lakh posts in 8 Corporations, 102 municipalities, 561 town panchayats, 385 unions, 12,618 village panchayats. A sum of Rs 300 crore was needed. “I will shortly submit a report to the Government in this regard,” he added.

Those who participated in the meeting included Project Officer, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), D. Jegannathan, PAs to Collector P. Sadanantham and P. Kalaimani, all Divisional Development Officers, Town Panchayat Executive Officers, Commissioners of Municipalities and Corporation Election officers.

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