District Collector V. Vinay Chand called upon returning officers to diligently discharge their duties in the upcoming panchayat elections in the district.
Addressing the ROs of Anakapalle Division at a training programme here on Thursday, the Collector said that ROs played a key role in elections and advised them to carefully study the handbook on guidelines issued by the Election Commission. The guidelines should be strictly followed during all stages of the election process, right from filing of nominations to scrutiny and withdrawal, he said.
“There should be transparency in the acceptance or rejection of nomination. It should be ensured that there are no errors in the acceptance of nominations. If the nominations are rejected for any reason, the same should be mentioned clearly. The steps in the preparation of the ballot paper should be followed meticulously,” he said.
Those contesting for the post of sarpanch/ward member should have completed 21 years of age and be a registered voter of the village/ward concerned. Sarpanch contestants from the General category should pay a security deposit of ₹3,000; SC/ST/BC candidates should pay ₹1,500. Those contesting for Ward Member from General category should pay ₹1,000 and reserved candidates ₹500. Nominations should be accepted only after verifying all the eligibility criteria.
Zilla Parishad CEO Nagarjunasagar gave a presentation on the EC guidelines.
Joint Collector P. Arun Babu, ITDA PO S. Venkateswar, Narsipatnam Sub-Collector N. Mourya, DRDA PD Visweswara Rao, RDOs Lakshmi Sivajyothi, Seetharama Rao and Penchala Kishore attended.
