SHILLONG, APR 1: Meghalaya and Assam have agreed to check the movements of militants during the parliamentary elections in both the state besides coordinating on other issues to ensure free and fair Lok Sabha elections.
Meghalaya goes to polls on April 9 for the two Lok Sabha seats- Shillong and Tura seats- while the elections in Assam will be held in three phases April 7 and 12 and 24.
Besides providing logistic support especially in the borders between the two states, the meeting of Meghalaya and Assam election, home department and police officials, held at Pinewood hotel in Shillong on Tuesday also agreed to beef up security besides checking movement of militant groups along the inter-state border.
Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer P Naik told reporters after the meeting, “All coordinating and action points have been discussed with regards to law and order during the meeting.” He, however, refuse to disclose the details.
Naik said there are certain militant groups operating in certain parts of the state along the inter-state border and their activities need to be checked to ensure peaceful elections.
Assam’s additional Chief Electoral Officer (ACEO) RC Jain expressed concerned over the movement of militants and said, “We have requested the Meghalaya government to look after the issue. From Assam part, we have also taken care of that since this meeting is for coordination during the polls.”
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Meghalaya and Assam share an inter-state border of about 800 kilometers and Meghalaya also has large about 126 polling stations located in 105 locations.
Naik informed that the meeting was called to sort out all the issues for conduct of peaceful, free and fair elections in both the states.
Besides the maintenance of the law and order, the movements of polling parties and logistics support to be provided to each others were also discussed. Naik said, “We have requested Assam to help with a certain number of vehicles because we are running short of vehicles especially in Garo Hills sector. We are asking for vehicles from them to be used during the elections.”
With Assam also going for polls, Naik said Assam also requires some coordination with regards to management of the dry days and movement of polling parties and maintaining of law and order.
Naik informed, “All these have been discussed and we decided to extend full cooperation to each other on all issues discussed during the meeting.”
Jain informed that both the states will be having a cordial relationship as both are depending on each other and informed that polling materials for the 101 polling stations of the Meghalaya will be passing through Assam. He said, “Security and other logistics will be required for which Assam will pitch in.”
Assam also requested its Meghalaya counterparts to declare dry days along the inter-state border areas when it goes to polls in three phases.
Jain told reporters, “Besides April 7 we have polls on 12 and 24 also and the border areas will also votes on these two days and we have requested that on these two days be declared dry days.” Jain informed as per the Election Commission’s guidelines, 48 hours before polls there should be a dry day in the poll areas.
Naik assured that dry days in the areas bordering Assam will start from the evening of April 5.
On the issue of dual voters along inter-state borders and the steps being taken both the states admitted of having detected quite a few numbers of cases in their respective electoral rolls.
Jain informed the issue of dual voters has also been taken care by both the states during the electoral process and detected certain dual voters and detected some dual voters. He said Assam has tried to avoid registering dual voters but informed if a person name has been entered in the electoral roll he cannot be debar because this is again a constitutional right.
Unable to disclose the number of dual voters detected, Jain, however, said all these cases detected are of the people residing along the border areas.
Naik meantime said the election department can action if only it comes to the department’s notice and informed that so far Meghalaya has not received any specific complaints from the Returning Officers.
Naik also said that he would like people to complaint if there is dual voter. He also said, “If at all any action is to be take up, somebody has to complaint, somebody has to let us know.” He informed that in Meghalaya detected only six cases of dual voters in Garo hills region.- By Our Reporter
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