To guarantee free and fair elections, the EC designates special observers in six states
In order to guarantee fairness in the next Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, the Election Commission today designated retired civil workers as special observers for administrative, security, and spending monitoring reasons in several states.
The Election Commission (EC) said that the special observers’ duties include monitoring disinformation and the impact of force and money. Finding opportunities for improvement and developing specific, workable suggestions are the two key goals. It said that special observers will set up shop in the state capitol and, if required, take tours of sensitive locations that need special arrangements.
Six states have police and general special observers stationed at their locations: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Five states have been assigned special spending observers: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh.
Former IPS officer Vivek Dube will act as the special police observer in Bihar, while retired IAS official Manjit Singh will serve as the special general observer. Maharashtra’s police special observer is NK Mishra, a former IPS officer, and the general special observer is Dharmendra S. Gangwar, a retired IAS. In Uttar Pradesh, the police special observer is Manmohan Singh, a former IPS officer, while the general special observer is retired IAS official Ajay V Nayak. Similarly, in Andhra Pradesh, Deepak Mishra, a former IPS officer, is the police special observer and retired IAS official Ram Mohan Mishra is the general special observer.
Yogendra Tripathi, a former IAS official, and Rajnikant Mishra, a retired IPS officer, have been designated as Odisha’s general and police special observers, respectively. Former IAS Alok Sinha is the general special observer in West Bengal, while retired IPS Anil Kumar Sharma is the police special observer. Rajesh Tuteja in Uttar Pradesh, Himalini Kashyap in Odisha, B Murali Kumar in Karnataka, Neena Nigam in Andhra Pradesh, and BR Balakrishnan in Tamil Nadu are the special expenditure observers for the five states. They’re all former officials of the Indian Revenue Service.
“Ensuring the fairness, impartiality, and credibility of elections is a crucial and solemn responsibility entrusted to the observers, and forms the bedrock of our democratic polity,” the European Commission said.
