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Cuttack, Baripada civic bodies to go to polls on February 6

— Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

State Election Commissioner Sanjeev Hota addressing a media conference on Wednesday.

BHUBANESWAR: General elections to Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and Baripada Municipality will be held on February 6.

Addressing a press conference here, State Election Commissioner Sanjeev Hota said a notification was issued on Wednesday for conducting general elections to the two civic bodies.

As per the notification, nomination papers will be accepted from January 12 to 16 and the scrutiny of papers will take place on January 19. Candidates could withdraw their nomination by 3 p.m. on January 22 and the final list of candidates contesting elections will be published by election officers the same day.

Counting of votes will be taken up and subsequently results will be declared on February 7, a day after the polling. The indirect election for Mayor and Deputy Mayor for CMC and Baripada Municipality will be held on February 13 and 26 respectively.

Corporators from 54 wards in case of CMC and councillors from 28 wards in Baripada municipality will be elected. Earlier while the CMC had 48 wards, there were 25 wards in Baripada.

“The model code of conduct to be observed by government, all political parties and candidates in the two municipal bodies has been brought into force with issue of poll notification. The government cannot declare any new scheme or highlight the government’s achievement on the forthcoming Republic Day celebration,” Mr. Hota said.

He said the State government had been directed not to effect the transfer of any officials including concerned district magistrate and superintendent of police without concurrence of the commission for the smooth conduct of the election.

There would also be a code of conduct for government employees who were expected to be impartial in discharging their duties during election process, a communiqué in this regard had been sent to Chief Secretary, Mr. Hota said.

SEC would appoint two commissioner level senior IAS officers as election observers for CMC and one IAS officer for Baripada municipal body.

“Five senior officers from Orissa Finance Services will be appointed as expenditure observers for CMC and one expenditure observer for Baripada,” he said.

Keeping in mind of technical snags that occurred in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during elections to Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), SEC would keep at least 10 technical officers from Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) standby for the election.

As many as 364564 and 57355 urban voters will be participating in the general election to CMC and Baripada Municipality respectively. Voting will be taken up in 425 booths this time compared to 394 booths in CMC earlier. However, for Baripada, the SEC has brought down the number of booths from earlier 70 to 62 this time.

While there will be no reservation for CMC’s Mayor post, chairman of Bariapda Municipality should come from scheduled tribe category.

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