Civic body elections: No aspirant turns up to file papers on first day

On the first day of nomination, no one filed the nomination papers for the elections to the municipal corporation here on Monday. As the political parties have not finalised the names of their candidates, it is being expected that nominations would be filed after the political parties have issued the list of candidates. The aspirants for the MC elections can file the nominations till December 12. The elections to the 85 wards of the municipal corporation and 30 seats of nagar councils and nagar panchayats in the district will be filed.

Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney said no nominations were received on the first day. She said the nomination form, affidavit and sponsorship form can be downloaded from the website of the Commission (https://sec.punjab.gov.in) and these forms are also available in the office of the Returning Officer concerned.

At a meeting held at the office of Deputy Commissioner with officials of various departments, Sakshi Sawhney stated that as per the election programme announced by the Punjab State Election Commission, nominations can be filed in the offices of the Returning Officers concerned from till December 12. The scrutiny of nominations would be held on December 13 and candidates can withdraw their candidature till December 14.

She said the voting will be held on December 21 from 7 am to 4 pm through EVMs. After the completion of the voting process, the counting of votes will be done at the polling station on the same day. She said a total of 704 booths have been set up for the 85 wards of the Amritsar Municipal Corporation, 14 booths for 13 wards of the Rajasansi nagar panchayat, 13 booths for 13 wards of the Baba Bakala nagar panchayat, 2 booths for two wards of the Ajnala nagar panchayat, one booth for Ward No.4 of the Majitha nagar panchayat and one booth for Ward No.13 of the Rayya nagar panchayat.

During the meeting, the Deputy Commissioner asked all the Returning Officers to coordinate with the police personnel related to the wards under their jurisdiction so that the police force can be increased if needed.

On the occasion, Additional Deputy Commissioner Gursimran Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner Paramjit Kaur, Assistant Commissioner Sonam, SDM Mankanwal Singh Chahal, Assistant Commissioner (General) Gursimranjit Kaur, RTA Secretary Khushdil Singh, District Revenue Officer Navkirat Singh, District Panchayat and Development Officer Sandeep Malhotra, ADC Harkomal Kaur, ACP (East) Vaneet Ehlawat and other officials were also present.