New GVMC Commissioner directs staff on arrangements for Vizag Municipal polls 2021

The State Election Commission (SEC), earlier issued a notification to conduct the elections at municipal corporations and municipalities/Nagar panchayats in Andhra Pradesh on 10 March. Taking stock of the situation, the new Municipal Commissioner of Vizag, Nagalakshmi Selvarajan (IAS), on Thursday, organised a meeting with officials to review arrangements for the upcoming Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) polls.Corporation (GVMC) polls.

During the meeting, the new GVMC Commissioner directed the Zonal Officers to bolster the surveillance and set up strong rooms, ballot boxes, and other polling materials, ahead of the elections. Ms. Selvarajan further told the staff to implement the electoral code of conduct across the city.

Explaining the arrangements that are being made for the elections, GVMC Chief Engineer, M Venkateswara Rao, said that 1,712 polling centres in Vizag are being equipped with the requisite infrastructure. Furthermore, the officials are chalking out plans to operate vehicles during elections through the identified 204 routes in Vizag. Mr. Rao added that the officials are adopting a zone-wise implementation of facilitating strong rooms at the polling booths.

Later, the GVMC Commissioner asked officials to coordinate with various departments. She ordered the GVMC staff to prepare a schedule to conduct the polls peacefully in Vizag. GVMC Additional Commissioner, AV Ramani was told to make a report of the deceased contestants who had submitted their nominations last year.

GVMC Chief Engineer, M Venkateswara Rao, Additional Commissioner, PS Asha Jyoti, Additional Commissioner, AV Ramani, GVMC CMO (Health), Dr KSLG Sastry, Supervising Engineers Vinay, and Samson Raj, along with all the zonal commissioners of the GVMC. were present at the meeting.

The GVMC polls will be taking place this year after a gap of 14 years. It was back in 2007 when the locals had last exercised their franchise for municipal polls. The election process was set in motion in March 2020 for conducting the ordinary elections to ULBs. However, the commission had stopped the process midway due to the threat of COVID-19.