Darj district gears up for Siliguri rural polls

SNS, SILIGURI,  26 MAY 2022: The Darjeeling district administration is gearing up to conduct the three-tier rural body elections tinder the Siliguri Sub Division. The polls are scheduled to he held on 26 June, while filing of nomination papers will begin tomorrow, officials said.

In this regard, Darjeeling District Magistrate S Ponnambalam addressed an all-party meeting in Siliguri today, also attended by police officers. The panchayat set up- Mahakuma Parishad (SMP), panchayat samiti (middle tier) and gram panchayat-is spread across four blocks of Matigtra, Kharibari, Naxalbari and Phansidewa in the district.

Distribution-cum-receiving centres will be set up in all the four blocks, while electronic voting machines (EVM) will be used for polling, officials said.

There are 657 polling stations and 382 polling premises. There will be 103 auxiliary booths--booths having more than 1200 voters will be divided. "We held a meeting with the political parties and we apprised them of the elections. We have also cleared some of their doubts. The draft publications for the polling stations were released today. The final publications of the polling stations will be announced on 13 June after receiving the claims and objections," Mr Ponnambalam said.

There will be one presiding officer and five polling personnel for each booth.

According to Mr Ponnambalam, if required, polling personnel will be engaged from Jalpaiguri and North Dinajpur districts too. "We have maintained their database," the DM said.

There are 5,27,938 electors in the said panchayats- 2,64,467 male, 2,63,468 female and three belonging to the third gender, officials said.

Sources said around 63,000 EVMs had been brought in from the districts like Hooghly and Howrah for the elections.

The last date for filing nominations is 2 June, while the date for scrutiny is 4 June, and the date for withdrawal of nominations has been set for 7 June.

Meanwhile, Darjeeling district Left Front convener Jibesh Sarkar said Left leaders raised a question in the meeting that the post of the sabhadhipati in the SMP had been reserved for a candidate belonging to the Other Backward Classes category, but that there were no reservations for the nine seats there.