Gangtok, May 28 (IPR): The last round of training for Counting Supervisors, Counting Assistant and Micro-Observers of Gangtok district for General Elections 2024 commenced here at SCERT Auditorium hall located in Burtuk today.
The training sessions had the presence of Mr Tushar G Nikhare District Election Officer (DEO) Gangtok-cum-District Collector (DC) Gangtok, Mr Milan Rai ADC (HQ) Gangtok, Mr Rohan Agawane ADC Gangtok, Mr GL Meena SDM (HQ) Gangtok, Mr Roshan Subba SDM Gangtok, Mr Sonam W Lepcha District Planning Officer Gangtok-cum-Nodal Officer for Training Management Team, Mr Jigme Wangchuk Bhutia State Level Master Trainer and concerned Officers.
Mr Tushar G Nikhare DEO Gangtok-cum-DC Gangtok, in his address to Counting officials, instructed them to arrive at counting hall on time as the counting process is a time bound exercise. He requested the officials to cooperate with each other and to inculcate spirit of conscientious on the day of counting.
The DEO gave detailed information on frisking procedure during the counting procedure and regulations surrounding shunning of gadgets before entering the counting hall. He reviewed the subject concerning rejection of postal ballots which must be dealt with care. He also spoke at length about timing of counting and transportation facilities to Counting Officials in detail.
The DEO in his concluding remarks requested the counting officials to arrive on time and avoid bottlenecks which delays the counting process. He reminded them that the counting process has new regulations which demands punctuality and efficiency from the officials. He ended his address by extending his best wishes to all the counting Officials.
Mr Rohan Agawane ADC Gangtok, briefed the Officials on timing of counting of votes. Reiterating the words of DEO, he stated that the counting of votes is time bound exercise. Further, he requested the counting Officials to report on time. He stressed on Officials to be mentally prepared for the counting day. The ADC Gangtok also explained frisking and no-gadget zone near counting hall.
Mr GL Meena SDM (HQ) Gangtok, through an interactive power point presentation used counting training questionnaire which included myriad number of subjects such as ETPB, Counting day sequence, postal ballot counting process, function of Micro Observers, Control Unit counting, roles and responsibilities of Counting Supervisor, procedure for counting VVPAT slips and reverification of postal ballot paper.
The SDM touched upon topics related to counting day which included discourse on Section 128 of R.O.P.A. 1951. Speaking on the same subject, he gave room wise details of counting hall in DIET college. His powerpoint presentation also included demonstration of pro-forma for recording of votes by Micro Observer, Annexure- J, Form 17-C, round wise counting format, Form 20 and Annexure-A.
Mr Jigme Wangchuk Bhutia State Level Master Trainer, in his powerpoint presentation explained about the first level of scrutiny for postal ballot which included scenarios related to anomalies detected in Form 13 A, Form 13 B and Form 13 C. The second level postal ballot included rejection of postal ballot vote on faults found on the postal ballot paper.
Counting of votes related to EVMs such as filling part II of 17C, repeating result sequence, special cases related to Control Units, counting of VVPAT slips was discussed during the PowerPoint presentation. The role of Micro Observer was also discussed at length by the State Level Master Trainer.
The day-long training comprised of two sessions for different batches of Counting Officials.
The counting of votes for General Elections 2024 is scheduled to take place on June 2, 2024 (for Assembly Constituencies) and June 4 (for Sikkim Parliamentary Constituency) at the premises of DIET College and SCERT.
