Chennai: Chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi is expected to visit Tamil Nadu later this month to examine the poll arrangements in place for May 16 polls, chief electoral officer Rajesh Lakhoni said on Monday.
Pointing out that the response from the public seeking replacement of new colour voter identity cards was overwhelming, he said 38,000 applications have been received and the new ID cards will be issued in two weeks.
Talking about the outreach programmes of election commission, the CEO said efforts were on to have advertisements on shopping bags encouraging the public to vote. The state election department has requested the Chennai Corporation to look into the campaign part, he said. Areas that recorded low poll percentage in the previous polls are under examination and campaigns will be taken up in such areas to boost polling.
Bus shelters are being targeted for outdoor advertisements. Of the 1,200 bus shelters in Chennai, 650 now have poll awareness billboards. LED vans have also been made operational in every district to create awareness among voters.
As for the monitoring of money, in addition to the existing flying squads, suspicious activities in public places such as Railway stations and bus stops are recorded with CCTV cameras and viewed by public election officials, he added.
So far, more than 3,200 complaints have been registered for violating the model code of conduct. And instructions given to address a complaint within three working days and 95 per cent of complaints have been attended to, he said.
According to sources, so far more than Rs 10 crore has been seized by the flying squads from different pockets of the state to prevent cash for votes.
