Bhubaneswar: Thirty voter awareness vehicles were launched Monday with a view to create awareness among the voters about the use of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). These vehicles will tour all the villages in each Assembly constituency across the state for a month.
Khurda Collector Nirmal Chandra Mishra flagged off 30 such vehicles from the Bhubaneswar camp office. While 17 mobile vans are meant for Bhubaneswar Sub-Division the rest are for Khurda sub-division.
“We have prepared the route chart so that not a single village is left uncovered by the campaign” Mishra said.
It may be mentioned here that even though the dates for the polls are yet to be announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the State Election Commission has started all necessary preparations, from procurement of EVMs, VVPATs to revision of voters’ list and training of officers.
The vehicles will visit every village in eight Assembly constituencies of the district from 8.30 am to 5 pm till February 10.
As mentioned by Odisha Chief Electoral Officer Surendra Kumar earlier, every van has an EVM set which includes ballot unit, control unit and VVPAT machine, two demonstrators, two Class IV officials and a security officer. Every van will tour four villages a day where mock poll will be done and in case of any doubt, re-mock polling will be done.
Earlier, a meeting was conducted January 5 by Surendra Kumar where he said special teams would be formed to ensure smooth conduct of the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state this year.
“To ensure smooth conduct of the elections, there are some key aspects like static surveillance team, excise monitoring, daily law and order reporting, vulnerability mapping, critical booth analysis, force deployment plan on which we have prepared ourselves,” Kumar told media persons after presiding over a preparatory meeting here.
Nodal officers are appointed at the state level in accordance with the guidelines of the Election Commission (EC) to ensure proper monitoring of these key aspects, he added.
“In Odisha, the Director General of Police (DGP) will appoint two senior police officers as nodal officers to deal with the law and order and election expenditure. The two nodal officers will work in coordination with the CEO’s office. They will submit their daily reports to the CEO, which will be sent to the EC. This apart, the EC has launched ‘Cvigil’ mobile app for citizens to report any violation of the Model Code of Conduct,” the CEO added.