The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC), which recently appointed a State Election Officer and District Election Officers for conducting local body polls, has issued notifications regarding polling booths and publishing of electoral rolls.
The notifications stated that the polling stations for the purpose of conducting polls under the rules shall be provided in the manner prescribed in the Instructions-2016 handbook and the approved list of polling stations shall be published by the Returning Officer at the offices of the District Election Officer, District Panchayat, Block Development Officer, Village Panchayat and other places as he may consider necessary.
The title, specimen and other particulars of the electoral rolls and the specimen of the certificate to be given by the Panchayat Electoral Registration Officer concerned and the electoral roll to be published shall be prepared and printed in Tamil and, in addition, in the languages in which the electoral rolls of Assembly constituencies are prepared and published, it stated.
The electoral rolls will be printed as directed by the TNSEC and the number of copies to be printed shall be as indicated later, it stated. Two copies of the electoral rolls are to be supplied free of cost to the recognised political parties as notified by the Commission from time to time, the notifications said.
It may be noted that after the issuing the notifications, the TNSEC had earlier this month moved the Madras High Court with yet another sub-application seeking three more months for conducting the local body polls. It had contended that it would not be possible to issue the notification for the polls before May 31.
TNSEC had in January this year assured a Division Bench of the Madras High Court that that the poll notification would be issued before May 31, on completion of delimitation of constituencies and reservation of seats.
However, the TNSEC has now said that it could not complete electoral roll verification since the rolls were handed over to it by the Election Commission only in April, though it was expected as early as January. It also stated that all officials were busy with the Parliamentary elections. The sub-application moved by the TNSEC seeking an additional three months is likely to be listed for hearing only after the High Court reopens after a month-long summer vacation on June 3.