State Awareness Observer visits South District

NAMCHI, 04 Apr [IPR]: State Awareness Observer, Dr Engame Pame arrived today in the South District for his second and final visit to get the overall feedback on the election proceedings of South District. He had a brief interaction with all the Nodal Officers designated on various duties for the General Elections in the presence of the Returning Officer/District Collector South, Prabhakar Verma in the DC’s chamber.

The Observer was briefed about their action report by the following Nodal Officers namely Nodal Officer SVEEP Raghul K, Assistant Collector, Nodal Officer MCMC Kapil Meena, ADC South, Nodal Officer Helpline & Complaint Redressal Tashi Chopel ADC (Dev) Ravangla, Head of Expenditure Monitoring Sunil C Sharma Sr AO, and Nodal Officer for Training Yangchen Tamang DPO South. Other officers present in the meeting were Samdup Bhutia SDM (HQ), Tenzing Denzongpa SDM Jorethang, Bishal Mukhia Deputy Secretary Elections all nodal officers designated for different election duties.

Mr Verma, the Returning Officer presented the latest and complete scenario of the activities of South District concerning the General Elections during the interaction.

In his short address, Dr Pame expressed satisfaction over the election preparedness in the district. Highlighting the task of Media Certification and Monitoring Committee [MCMC], he said that there are certain points to be looked into by the MCMC team like paid news and political advertisements and pre certification of the advertisements and asked the MCMC members to stay vigilant and alert on the same.

Enquiring about the SVEEP activities, he asked the Nodal Officer to create ample awareness amongst the voters through SVEEP activities and work towards increasing the voter turnout of South Sikkim from the present 82 percent. There is no room for complacency till the Election Process is over, said the Awareness Observer and added that all engaged in election duties have to stay vigil till the process is over.

He also enquired about the number and type of complaints received in the control room and directed the nodal officer to take the required action straight away. He also inspected the Control Room and took a look at the complaint register. He informed the officials that although this may be his last visit, he would still be keeping in touch with the happenings of Sikkim. 

He then checked the MCMC office and enquired about the scrutiny of paid news, political advertisements and about keeping a tab on the local cable network for the same. He also briefly attended the training program of Sector Magistrates wherein he was briefed by ADC (Dev) Benu Gurung about training management.

Later he flagged off the SVEEP vehicle for a signature campaign in the premise of South DAC alongwith RO South and other Nodal Officers. The vehicle is set to tour the South District to create awareness amongst the voters about voting activities. The awareness song for General Elections 2014 under SVEEP approved by ECI was also launched today during the flag off. The Observer on his final visit will also be touring some Polling Stations in South before heading for West District.