The process of panchayat elections have begun in Darrang district along with few other districts of Assam which will go into polls in the first phase on December 5 next.
The process for both distribution and receipt of nomination papers have started practically from Wednesday.
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However, till filing of this report, the authorized officers are yet to receive any nomination.
Earlier, the Deputy Commissioner has appointed a total of 89 authorized officers with power and functions just like that of a returning officer for smooth conduct of the election which will need more than 4,500 government officials and staff.
The district administration while appointing the officials has taken care of the ongoing NRC process so that it is not hampered and majority of the LRCRs of the process have been left out from ensuing poll process.
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“The panchayat polls are a massive democratic practice. We need responsible officers, even more than that in the assembly or parliamentary polls. However, we have taken care in judicious use of the officials which are already engaged in the ongoing NRC process so that in no point the process is affected. Hence most of the LRCRs have been left out from the process.” said Deputy Commissioner Ashok Kr Barman on Thursday.
He further stated that the district will go to polls for 14 Zila Parishad constituencies, 75 anchalik panchayat members, equal number of seats for gaon panchayat presidents and a total of 750 seats for gaon panchayat members.
A total of 807 polling stations have been earmarked for the district where 5,71,835 voters are going to exercise their franchise while the counting of votes will be done at the Mangaldai College.
The district administration has also estimated a budget of nearly Rs four crore for smooth conduct of the polls.
Meanwhile, the last date of filing of nomination has been fixed on December 15 which will be followed by the date of scrutiny and withdrawal of nominations as December 16 and December 19 respectively.
The district administration has already completed the process of reservation of seats as per norms including 50 per cent for women.
Hence out of the 14 zilla parishad constituencies, six seats namely Lakhimpur-Tengabari, Duni-Dipila, Sipajhar-Devananda, Bihudiya, Shyampur and Lalpool seats have been reserved for general women while Chapai seat is reserved for SC women.