THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, Dec 23: The Palamu administration has begun holding district-level training for sector magistrates and police officers in the wake of the Lok Sabha election due in 2024.
The ECI asks for training for sector magistrates and police officers four months before the election.
The Palamu team of the election, from district election officer-cum-DC Shashi Ranjan and deputy election officer Pretty Kisko down to others, are up and doing.
On Friday, training was done for 20 sector magistrates and 20 police officers jointly in one batch. The training will end on December 26, with a day break between December 24 and 25.
District election officer Shashi Ranjan said, “This training is a must. It’s like a warm-up to the coming celebration of democracy – the election. It is given to a maximum of 20 sector magistrates and an equal number of police officers in one go.”
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The sector magistrate and police officer are refreshed and trained for their roles, which is enormous. They are expected to do it with a sense of professionalism, said Shashi Ranjan.
Deputy election officer Pretty Kisko said the sector magistrate and police officer are to see if a booth has AMF, i.e. assured minimum facility at the booth like drinking water, toilet, etc.
Kisko further said, “A sector magistrate has, on average, ten booths under him or her. The sector magistrate is to have booth history like poll-related skirmishes, violence, influencing or intimidation or threat to voters, bribery for votes, flaunting of muscle and power, preventing weaker section voters from casting votes, etc.”
Free liquor and chicken night before the polling play a decisive role here in Palamu. It is followed by cash at least 1,000 rupees per voter. Manatu segment is notorious for these two ills to the voting.
District election officer Shashi Ranjan said, “Sector magistrates and police officers are to visit areas and interact with the locals to sniff out what the precedence of the booth has been in the past and then to suggest remedial measures to be done later on.”
The report of the sector magistrate and police is a deciding factor in deploying the CAPF, which is the central armed police force at booths.
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In the 2009 Lok Sabha election in Palamu, a highly vulnerable booth was given Home Guard jawan coverage, only leading to a serious outrage. It caused a tense situation for the election team here.
The then district returning officer cited the report of the sector magistrate and police where the two had concealed the vulnerability to the booth, rendering it as any other booth, and accordingly, the security cover of this booth was notional then.
The role of the FST (flying surveillance team) and SST (static surveillance team) on the bordering areas of Palamu gets taxing as there are instances of heavy cash being shipped surreptitiously.
NH 75 and NH 98 are very troublesome, especially the line hotels across it where cash for voters is concealed by the candidates or their men in the fridges of the line hotels to avoid detection by the FST, etc.
Palamu has 50 plus critical booths where not only 88 to 90 per cent of voting is done, of which 75 per cent goes for one candidate. Chainpur segment is infamous for it.
If one goes by the statistics of re-poll, then Palamu’s poll record has been too good, as the maximum number of re-poll incidents has been less than 5 in the past ten years.
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