13 May 2024, Haryana – Chief Electoral Officer, Sh. Anurag Agarwal, directed all Deputy Commissioners in the state, to ensure that all Assistant Returning Officers at sub-divisional levels ensure procurement of election material from the Ambala store. Postal ballot scanning will be done before the counting of votes, so one assistant returning officer will be appointed for every 10 scanners. Apart from it, separate assistant returning officers should be appointed for each proposed counting table, and the names and mobile numbers of these officers should be sent to the Chief Electoral Officer’s office.One Assistant Returning Officer to be appointed for every 10 scanners
Sh. Agarwal said that the recent introduction of ETPBS (Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System) and postal ballot scanning is a very important aspect, so officers themselves will have to perform this task. High-speed leased lines of 100 Mbps (megabytes per second) should be arranged for all polling centres.
He mentioned that voters over 85 years of age and persons with disabilities who wish to vote from home should fill out Form 12 D and send it to the Election Commission.
There are 1,11,658 service voters in the state
Sh. Agarwal stated that the total number of service voters in the state is 1,11,658. He directed that adequate number of scanners should be arranged for counting the votes and an ARO should be appointed to guide the scanning team.
Management of postal ballots is essential
He said that postal ballot is an important element in vote counting. Under this, service voters, voters and other employees deployed on counting duty and absentee voters are counted. In view of this, he directed to appoint a separate nodal officer.
The Chief Electoral Officer stated that between March 16 and May 6, 1,95,662 new voters have been added to the state. Sh. Agarwal mentioned that there are 20,031 polling stations, including 10,523 temporary polling stations, in the state. All district electoral officers should arrange clean drinking water, separate toilets for women and men, additional tents considering the heat wave, fans along with contacting the health department for medical facilities including ORS.
