Take stringent action against those violating Covid guidelines during elections: Telangana SEC Partha Sarathi

HYDERABAD: Telangana State Election Commissioner (SEC) C Partha Sarathi on Saturday directed the district collectors, police commissioners, superintendents of police, municipal commissioners and others involved in conduct of municipal polls to ensure that all Covid-19 guidelines are followed by political parties and its candidates during campaign, on polling and counting day.
Mincing no words, he said stringent action would be taken against any lapses found in implementation of precautionary measures to be taken to check spread of Coronavirus during the election process. The SEC held a video conference with top officials on holding municipal elections as per Covid-19 guidelines.
He directed the officials concerned to ensure that one medical officer for every ward is deployed on duty until the entire voting process is completed. Asha workers and ANMs would be deployed at every polling centre.
Cases should be booked against the candidates not following Covid-19 guidelines. No rallies, public meetings, street plays, local meetings shall be allowed during campaign days between 7 PM and 8 AM. The campaigning will come to end at 5 PM on April 27.
The door to door campaign is subject to restrictions including Covid-19 guidelines, a group of five (5) persons, including candidates, excluding security personnel, if any, is allowed to do door to door campaigning.
For road shows –the convoy of vehicles should be broken after every two (2) vehicles (excluding the security vehicles, if any). The interval between two sets of conveyor vehicles should be at a gap of 10 meters. There shall be at least half an hour gap between road shows of two different political parties and candidates on the same route.
The rule of no mask, no entry into polling stations should be implemented strictly.