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EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
VADODARA, Aug 8: Pull up your socks and deliver despite the odds, was the bottomline of the meeting of top officials of the five district of Central Gujarat held by V V S Subbarao, the additional chief secretary (Home) of the State government, here on Sunday.
Held here to review all the official activities and future plans made so far for the forthcoming Parliamentary polls, the meeting was attended by all the district collectors, top police officials and district development officers from Vadodara, Anand, Kheda, Panchmahals and Dahod, which have seven Parliamentary constituencies.
The ACS took a serious view of the distribution of liquor to influence the people, specially during the polls, and asked the police and the excise departments to intensify their raids and ensure the crime was not repeated this time. He reportedly instructed the two agencies not to delay the registration of Prohibition Act cases.
He reviewed the contingency plans of each district and instructed the officials to ensure free, fearless, and impartial polling in their respective areas despite the infrastructural inadequacies. He said that during the last Parliamentary polls, the State had brought additional para-military forces from Rajasthan. However, this year both the states had polls simultaneously.
The officials were, thus, asked to manage the elections with the available forces which would include railway police, SRP, Industrial Security Force, Home Guards, Gram Rakshak Dals, NCC cadets and the Prohibition department cops, besides the police.
Subbarao also made it clear that the police and collectorates did not have to get all the arms surrendered before the polls, as had been the practice in the past, and asked them to use their legal powers judiciously. Asking the police to keep a strict vigil on all the anti-social elements throughout, he asked the administration officials to ensure that the code of conduct was observed in toto.
The collectors were also asked to hold a series of meetings with all ranks of officials so that confidence was instilled in their minds to ensure free polls.
District collector Anil Mukim welcomed the guests and proposed the vote of thanks. Meanwhile, according to another official information, Mukim will hold a meeting of the administration's standing committee on election on Monday, in which he will discuss the election code of conduct with top officials of the police, para-military forces, VUDA and VMC.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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