Election Duty in 2018 Author; Dr. K.S. Kang

Election Duty in 2018

Author: Dr. K.S.Kang

My next election duty as Sector Officer/Zonal Magistrate was at a place nearly 50 kms away from district headquarters with the name Raja ji ki Mandpiya. After getting pre poll training in various articles of Indian Penal Code Criminal Code. The peculiar thing of this area was that the office of Returning Officer was at Begun nearly 60 kms East of district headquarters while the office of Assistant Returning Officer who was of the rank of SDO was to be at Gangrar which was north of district headquarters nearly 20 kms away from district headquarter on Chittorgarh-Bhilwara Road. So most of the time Zonal Magistrates of this zone were either rushing to Begun or to Gangrar for the meetings. There were seven villages under my zone- Jeevanayak ji ka Khera, Jawasiya, Badliya, Mandpiya, Kartiyas, Naya Talab and Motliyas. After taking my vehicle I proceeded on national highway connecting Chittorgarh with  Bhilwara. After crossing the town of Gangrar and crossing the Toll Plaza of the highway a road parted east that came to the railway crossing. After crossing the rail line proceeding further eastward on the road connecting Gangrar- Mandpiya-Sadas for a couple of and kilometers a road branched southward bringing me to the first polling booth of my zone in the school building of the village Jeeva Nayak ka Kheda. According to Election records this village was a sensitive polling booth as it had recorded more than 75% polling in the last elections So there was to be a micro-observer also along with the polling party. Micro observer will report directly to Central observer of the constituency who are normally senior IAS officers. There is one observer for each constituency and one observe is to keep watch on the expenditure incurred by political parties and candidates in the canvassing procedure. After returning back to Gangrar-Sadas road and moving further eastward came the village Jawasiya which had two polling booths. After keeping moving on the same road further Eastward a road branched southward bringing us to the village Badaliya. After coming back to the road connecting Gangrar-Sadas in the East came my headquarter Mandpiya which also had two polling booths. It was a big village and I was supposed to stay at Atal Sewa Kendra which was changed to Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendra after BJP was ousted and Congress came into power after these elections. It speaks about the futility of changing the name of the same building twice by two major political parties of the country without adding much to it. After surveying my staying arrangements and meeting the BLO Mr Shaitan Singh who was Social Science teacher and influential personality of the village I proceeded to see other villages of my zone. Just outside Mandpiya a road branched westward bringing me to Motliyas. From her moving northward I came to Naya Talab the whole village was situated on the hillock. Moving further on the same path I came to the last village of my zone Kartiyas.

In this election government came up with two new concepts besides micro observer and that was Sector Police Officer who would assist Zonal Magistrate in maintaining law and order situation in the zone and the next was a machine known as VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) to enhance the credibility of EVM’s. We were given reserve EVM’s and VVPAT’s  one day before the polling. As VVPAT’s were sensitive machines so most of the VVPAT’s did not work properly in the morning during mock poll that created panic among the presiding officers. But then some body found solution to it by shaking it up and rebooting the machine and every Presiding Officer flowed suit and the machines started working normally and the polls began comfortably. During the polls there was some trouble in Jawasiya village that an unwanted crowd had gathered near the polling booth but the situation was handled quite efficiently by the Sector Police Officer. Besides performing other functions of Zonal magistrate like assuring minimum facilities at the polling booths, observance of model code of conduct by the concerned candidates and polling parties, escorting the polling parties safely to the polling booths from district headquarters, to check the poll preparedness of the parties and escorting them back to district headquarters safely after the polls and of course to provide relevant and essential information in various formats the poll went off peaceful  by and large.           .