SHILLONG, APR 1: Meghalaya chief electoral officer (CEO) Dr BDR Tiwari on Monday held a meeting with political parties as part of the preparation for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, to be held on April 19.
Speaking to media persons, Tiwari informed that the meeting was held regarding the time vouchers to be issued to the political parties for their broadcast on the All India Radio and Doordarshan.
“Accordingly, the time vouchers will be issued by the Election Commission of India for the recognized national and state political parties,” he said while adding that the meeting was to brief them on how to go about obtaining the time vouchers.
On the poll preparation of the state, the CEO informed that since the rainy season is approaching, the education department and revenue and disaster management department have been asked to make all necessary arrangements keeping in mind that the majority of the polling stations are being set up in the schools.
“The chief secretary has also taken a review on the matter with all the concerned departments,” he said.
“We want to ensure that movement should not be hampered and that rain shelters and other things will be provided in all polling stations (for the convenience of the voters on the polling day),” he added.
According to him, the number of polling stations have increased to 3512 from 3482 in the last 2023 Assembly polls.
He said his department is also committed to take steps to overcome urban and youth apathy to improve the voter turnout this time around.
“Urban apathy and youth apathy are big challenges faced during election time. So we have done our turnout implementation plan up to the booth level and most of the polling stations having lower voting percentage are decreasing in the voting, all other aspects we have worked out and we plan our strategy as per polling booth and as per district wise. Grass root level institutions like dorbar shnong, schools and other social institutions we are partnering with them and all the steps are being worked out,” Tiwari said.
Meanwhile, the CEO informed that with Meghalaya being largely a green state, the Election Commission has decided to take initiative for the conduct of a green election.
“Now weather is also very conducive for the plantation so we are taking a larger plantation drive to make these elections green and memorable. In each polling station, we are going to plant two tree saplings and those will be planted by the first male and first female voter,” he added.
