The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer conducted a State-Level Workshop on COVID-Related Arrangements, Cashless Treatment of polling personnel and Rapid Response Team, and a hands-on training and sensitisation programme for EVM/VVPAT for representatives of all recognised national and state political parties.
TFM Desk
As part of preparation for the general election to the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly, the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Manipur conducted workshops, training and sensitisation programmes on various matters related to the smooth conduct of election.
State-Level Workshop on COVID-Related Arrangements, Cashless Treatment of polling personnel and Rapid Response Team in connection with the forthcoming election to Manipur Legislative Assembly, 2022 was held on Friday in the Conference Hall of the Office of CEO, Manipur, according to official sources.
Additional CEO, Manipur N. Praveen Singh, who presided the workshop, said that it was for the first time that such workshop with participation of chief medical officers of the districts, medical superintends of RIMS, JNIMS and district hospitals in the state and officials of Health Department, Manipur was organised to deliberate on the above matters with the objective of formulating district and state plans of action for effective implementation during the ensuing election to Manipur Legislative Assembly, 2022.
State nodal officer (Health) Dr L Tomcha Khuman informed that the dedicated 24×7 State Command Centre will be functional at CEO, Manipur Office premise under his supervision to promptly respond to the casualty/incident. District command centres will also be operational at district level under the supervision of district CMOs.
Assembly Constituency level Rapid Response Team (RRT) will be set up for all the ACs with one medical officer and support staff including nurses and paramedics. Two helicopter RRTs service will be utilised for emergency casualties for far flung areas.
He further mentioned that basic life support training will be given to 128 officials from districts.
He further highlighted that the commission’s guidelines on COVID related arrangements and state government’s existing SOP on COVID Appropriate Behaviour shall be effectively enforced during the election period.
The workshop was attended by state nodal officer (Health) Dr L Tomcha Khuman, assistant state nodal officer (Health) Dr Y Premchandra Singh, SSO & assistant state nodal officer (Health), Dr Somorjit Ningombam, CMOs, medical superintendents of seven districts and medical superintendents of RIMS and JNIMS.
On the other hand, in view of the ensuing general election to Manipur Legislative Assembly, 2022, a hands-on training and sensitisation programme for Electronic Voting Machine (EVM)/Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) for representatives of all recognised national and state political parties was held on Saturday at the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Manipur, Lamphelpat. The training was carried out by the officials of the CEO, Manipur.
The primary objective of the training was to create awareness on the complete functioning of the EVMs and briefed on the voting process that takes place in the polling booth.
The training was participated by eight representatives from various political parties including Indian National Congress (INC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Naga People’s Front (NPF) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). The participants were also briefed on the protocols and Election Commission of India (ECI) instruction on EVM transportation and storage.
In compliance with the instruction of the ECI, EVM demonstration centres are set up in the offices of the CEO, Manipur, in all district headquarters and all the offices of the Returning Officers (ROs). It is mainly being set up to make the voters/citizens have the live experience on EVM/VVPAT and sensitise them about the operations of the EVM.
Joint CEO, Ramananda Nongmeikapam informed that with a view to create awareness on EVM/VVPAT to all voters across the state, Mobile Demonstration Van will soon be launched for all assembly constituencies.
He further said the EVM/VVPAT machines used for Training/awareness purposes are First Level Checking (FLC) OK machines.
It may be mentioned that two master trainers for EVM from each AC have been trained who will further train the district election functionaries and polling officials in the districts.