General elections to 92 urban bodies in Orissa announced

Bhubaneswar, Aug 11 (UNI) Elections to 92 urban bodies spread over all the 30 districts in Orissa will be held on September 19, State Election Commissioner Sanjeeb Chandra Hota announced today.

Talking to newspersons, Mr Hota said the code of conduct in these urban bodies would be made effective from today till the first meeting for elections to the chairpersons of these bodies on September 30.

Mr Hota said for the first time a separate code of conduct for public servants had been issued and a communication in this regard had already been sent to the state Chief Secretary.

The Election Commissioner said as per the new code of conduct, if any government official was found aligning with any political parties or candidates, disciplinary action would be taken against him.

Mr Hota said the Commission would appoint 23 IAS officers as Election Observers and 23 senior Orissa Finance Service Officers as Expenditure Observers to supervise and oversee the smooth conduct of the Municipal elections in the state.

One election officer, he said, had been appointed for each municipality, who would function under the guidance of the District Magistrate.

Giving detailed schedule of the elections, the State Election Commissioner said nominations would be issued from August 20 to August 26 and the scrutiny would take place on August 28 while the valid nomination of the candidates would be published on August 29 and withdrawal of the nominations had been fixed till September 1.

The poll, Mr Hota said, would be held in 2,838 booths across the state on September 19 and the counting of the ballots and declaration of results would be announced on September 20.

The entire process of the elections would be completed on September 21 with the election of vice-chairperson to these urban bodies.

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