Corpn Council polls likely before January, asst ROs appointed

On Friday, Chennai Corporation Commissioner and district election officer Gagandeep Singh Bedi issued an order appointing 37 assistant returning officers. Officers in the ranks of assistant revenue officers and assistant executive engineers have been appointed as assistant returning officers. 

As per the order, the assistant returning officers will assist the returning officer. The Corporation Commissioner will also function as returning officer. The civic body has allocated divisions, where the officials will perform as assistant returning officers. 

Meanwhile, a Corporation official, privy to the developments, said that the election would be conducted before January. “Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) are kept ready and first-level checking is ongoing to replace any faulty machines,” the official said. 

It is learnt that the civic body has made arrangements to use more than 40,000 ballot units to conduct the elections. The civic body will release the voters’ list on November 5 and opportunities will be given to the voters for making corrections to the list. 

In February 2020, the Corporation released a list of polling stations to be created in the city. As many as 5,759 polling stations have been identified, of which 135 stations were allocated for female voters. Also, another 135 polling stations were allocated for male voters. As many as 5,489 stations were for both male and female voters. However, the election was postponed due to several reasons, including COVID-19. 

Also, the civic body conducted a delimitation drive in 2018 and modified the boundaries of 119 divisions. The delimitation drive was conducted in a way that all the divisions in core city zones have a population of around 43,000. Divisions in Ambattur and Valasaravakkam zones have a population of 30,000 and Tiruvottiyur, Perungudi, Alandur and Sholinganallur have 20,000 persons per division. Divisions in Manali and Madhavaram zones have a population of 15,000. Unless like other urban local bodies, delimitation was conducted based on population rather than the size of an area.