Election Commission Appoints 15 Special Observers For Poll-Bound States

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has appointed 15 special observers for the upcoming Assembly elections in Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

The Special Observers will be supervising and monitoring the work being done by the electoral machinery in their assigned states and ensure that stringent, effective enforcement action is undertaken based on intelligence inputs and complaints received through CVigil, voter helpline etc.

"Fifteen former civil servants who hold impeccable and brilliant track record of domain expertise and have past experience with election processes, have been included in the team as Special Observers for the current poll going states," the Election Commission said in a release on Tuesday (1 February).

These officers will oversee the entire poll processes as eyes and ears of the Commission on the ground to ensure free, fair and voter friendly elections, the poll panel said.

The officers appointed as Special General, Police and Expenditure Observers in the poll going States of Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

Rajastha cadre retired IAS Manjit Singh and Himachal cadre retired IPS Somesh Goyal will be respectively the Special General Observer and Special Police Observer for Goa.

MP cadre retired IAS Pravir Krishna, UP cadre retired IPS Arun Kumar and former IRS officer Rajesh Tuteja will be the Special General, Special Police and Special Expenditure Observer respectively for Manipur.

Rajasthan cadre former IAS officer Vinod Zutshi, UP cadre former IPS Rajni Kant Mishra and ex-IRS officer Himalini Kashyap will be the Special General Observer, Special Police Observer and Special Expenditure Observer respectively for Punjab.

Assam-Meghalaya cadre retired IAS Ram Mohan Mishra, Punjab cadre former IPS Anil Kumar Sharma and ex-IRS Madhu Mahajan will respectively be the Special General Observer, Special Police Observer & Special Expenditure Observer for Uttarakhand.

For Uttar Pradesh, Bihar cadre reitred IAS Ajay Nayak will be the Special General Observer.

AGMUT cadre retired IPS Deepak Mishra will be the Special Police Observer and ex-IRS officers B Murali Kumar and B R Balakrishnan will be the two Special Expenditure Observers for Uttar Pradesh.

The Special Observers will soon be visiting their allocated states and start their work with State CEOs and concerned Deputy Election Commissioners, the poll panel said.