SHILLONG, JUNE 3: Deputy Commissioner of East Khasi Hills and Returning Officer of Shillong parliamentary constituency SC Sadhu on Monday reiterated that victory processions and rallies should not disturb law and order during the counting of votes.
Speaking to reporters after an inspection to the counting centre in Shillong, Sadhu said all arrangements have been made to ensure that counting is done efficiently and in a transparent manner involving all political parties. For law and order, elaborate arrangements are in place and it is ensured that no unauthorized persons enter the premises when the counting is underway.
“Though, we have relaxed the provision of the initial order of 144 CrPC with respect to rallies and processions, all other provisions of that order are still intact in the premises that is still enforced to ensure no forces, no persons or groups disturbed the counting process,” he said.
The DC said, “after issuing of the order, many stakeholders including political parties and some other NGOs and traditional heads, they have given their representations and approached us and appealed to us to relax the provision on rallies and processions and after discussing with all of them, we thought that we will relax to that extent and at the same time, we appeal to them to ensure that processions and rallies should not turn out to be some law and order disturbance.”
He said that the candidates and the political parties have assured us that they will take measures from their side to ensure that there are no untoward incidents happen due to the rallies.
Sadhu said, “we consulted the political parties and contesting candidates so that instruction would be that they have to give in advance to us in terms of what route they are going to take for these processions and they have to deploy enough volunteers from their side and they have to brief their teams when they conduct these processions and rallies to ensure that these rallies should not disturb others and should not create any disturbances to law and order.” he further stated.
