Speaking to media persons in Bangalore on Saturday, Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami said that instructions have been given to all deputy commissioners to take steps to include the names of voters left out in the electoral list.

He said that special campaigns to register the voters will take off from Saturday and will continue till April 11. “Till the last day of nomination, persons whose names are missing can give applications for inclusion,” he added.

Instructions would be issued to all booth level officers to submit the lists of persons who earlier had voter identity cards, but their names are missing in the electoral rolls now.

No ban on banners
Referring to the meeting, the full bench of Election Commission had with various political parties and officers on Friday, Mr Gopalaswami said that the use of banners, posters, buntings etc during campaigning would be allowed only as per the provisions of Karnataka Open Places (Prevention of Defacement) Act , 1981. “Under the Act, there is no ban on the use of banners, posters, flags at the public meeting places. But one hour after the meeting, it is the responsibility of political parties concerned to remove them,” he added. Detailed instructions in this regard would be notified in a day or two.

As one of the three days scheduled for polling is not a holiday, business and industrial units would be asked to either declare a holiday or give enough time to their employees to exercise their franchise.

A meeting with the home secretaries and director and inspectors general of police of neighbouring states — Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Kerala and Maharashtra, would be held soon to discuss the measures to check unauthorised movement of liquor and people from these states during the Assembly elections. The deputy commissioners in Karnataka bordering Goa, have been instructed to keep a vigil on smuggling of illicit liquor into the State.

The CEC further added that the DCs in all the districts have been asked to set up grievance redressal cells in the district headquarters to attend to the complaints.

“All complaints that appear in news papers should be taken note of; solved and a report on the action taken be sent to the EC office next day,” he added.

When asked if Tamilians residing in the State would refrain from giving their votes out of fear in view of the Hogenakal issue, Mr Gopalaswamy said, in such an event, people should make a representation to the authorities concerned.

No restriction
The CEC clarified that there would be no restrictions on undertaking normal relief measures in the rain-affected areas in the State. However, the authorities should refrain from announcing special packages, he added.

To a query on election expenditure, he said there is no revision of the election expenditure. When asked whether the decision to hold polls in the State was unanimous in the Chief Election Commission, he said, “finally, yes”.
Central Election Commissioners Naveen Chawla and S Y Quereshi, Chief Electoral Officer M N Vidyashankar, Special Officer N Ramaseshan and other senior officers were present.