Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju Visits Training Session of ROs/AROs

Shiv Kumar:

Patiala, November 15: Chief Electoral Officer Dr. S Karuna Raju today reviewed training session of Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers at State College of Education, Patiala, conducted by Election Commission. He briefed the ROs who attended day one of a four day session and addressed their queries related to the electoral process.
            He said that the Election Commission has convened four day Electoral Process Training Sessions for Punjab Returning Officers/Assistant Returning Officers simultaneously at Patiala, Bathinda and Jalandhar for equipping them with the detailed process of Elections and Polling. National Level Master Trainers in the rank of ADCs or above have been deputed to train the ROs/AROs. Earlier, in October training sessions were also conducted for the various batches of ROs and AROs and these are the last batches.

            While interacting with the participants, he said that we should gain maximum from the training session as it would be helpful for us to conduct smooth and fair elections in the coming weeks. Asking them to go through the information provided by the candidates in form 26, he said, the information related to criminal antecedents would be further processed by making it public through print and electronic media.
            Disclosing an interesting fact, Dr. S Karuna Raju said though the Election Commission has fixed a limit of Rs 28 lakh plus 10 percent addition for a candidate in each assembly segment but to complete the electoral process in forthcoming state assembly elections in Punjab, Election Commission has earmarked a budget of Rs 2 Crore per segment which include all the honorariums, police deployment, videography etc. He said this time equal importance would be given to third gender voters as well as Male-Female voters.
            He said that training curriculum would include Nominations Process upto allotment of symbols, Code of Conduct, SVEEP Activities, Poll Staff Training, Micro Observer Training, Randomization, Expenditure Observer Training etc.
            National Master Trainer Yogesh Kumar, HCS, Additional Deputy Commissioner Karnal said that these training sessions are very useful for the ROs and AROs who are the important part of the poll process. The curriculum has been designed in such a way that every aspect of the electoral process has been covered in a comprehensive manner. The training is based on theoretical as well as interactive sessions, he added.