Filing of nominations for urban civic polls to be held for Madurai Corporation, three municipalities and nine town panchayats in the district began on Friday.
After chairing an all-party meeting here on Friday, Collector S. Aneesh Sekhar said as per the High Court order, the process of filing of nominations was being covered with closed-circuit television cameras.
Eleven flying squads, one each for the four zones of Madurai Corporation, one each for Tirumangalam, Usilampatti and Melur municipalities and four flying squads for nine town panchayats had been deployed.
Dr. Sekhar said all the voters whose names were included in the electoral roll during the special summary revision were eligible to cast their votes on February 19. The supplementary electoral roll had been distributed to recognised political parties.
Madurai district had got 15,73,289 voters, including 13,39,452 voters in Madurai Corporation.
Stating that 200 polling stations had been identified as sensitive, the Collector said besides installation of CCTV cameras, a micro observer or a videographer would be deployed at each of those booths. Model code of conduct would be implemented in and five km around all urban local bodies.
Only two vehicles would be allowed for the candidates who came for filing the nomination and either the candidate or the proposer would be allowed inside the office to file the nomination.
In view of COVID threat, only three persons could go for door-to- door campaign. No election-related procession or meetings would be allowed till January 31 since the ban on processions and meetings was in force in the State till then.
As per the request of the political parties, a single window system would be set up for allowing meetings and processions. The district administration had set up an election control room at the Collectorate. People could call the toll-free number 1800- 425-7865 to lodge complaints or air their grievances regarding local bodies elections.
People could carry a maximum of ₹50,000 with necessary documents while travelling.
With model code of conduct in force, the Collector said that all officers, whose offices were located in the first floor, would come down to the ground floor to collect the papers from differently-abled persons.
Removal of posters and wall writings would be completed by Friday.
Special camps would be held for all the poll-related officers and employees to get the booster dose of COVID vaccine. Madurai Commissioner K.P. Karthikeyan was present.