Imphal: Nodal Officer, Training, Imphal West Keisham Jadumani Singh said that all polling and police personnel on poll duty in respect of Imphal West district have been trained and are all set for poll duty on February 28.
He added that training for polling personnel for all 13 Assembly Constituencies of Imphal West has been conducted in three phases at 11 different venues.
Phase-wise training has also been conducted for police personnel regarding poll duty. So far five phases of police training have been conducted – three times at the Police HQs level and two times at the Police Stations level.
Preparation for the Election Training Programme for the Manipur State Assembly Election, 2022 in respect of Imphal West District started with the making of Video Explainers of various poll activities including Election Expenditure Monitoring, Model Code of Conduct, Media Certification and Monitoring Committee, Electronic Voting Machines & VVPATs, Poll Process and Counting of Votes.
A total of 21 numbers of video explainers have been prepared, the Nodal Officer said, stating that the step is quite unprecedented and helpful to all who are performing election duty. All the videos are made available on You Tube of DEO Imphal West and CEO Manipur. Some of the videos have good viewership reaching 21K plus etc.
Considering the importance of Women’s empowerment and encouraging participation of women in the conduct of the election, all women Assembly Level Master Trainers having 39 trainers were appointed and have provided training on EVM & VVPAT handling and poll process duty, he said.
In view of the COVID pandemic, two days Virtual Training Programme was conducted through E-Lite TV, social media like YouTube of DEO Imphal West. More than 7k people have viewed the programme and trained themselves, he added.
The Offline Training for 2,544 polling personnel including All Women Polling Teams for all the 13 ACs has been done in three phases. The training were conducted with teaching aids like Projectors, Video Explainers, Practicing on Printed Forms, etc. Moreover, after completion of normal training, On Demand Training was arranged for all Returning Officers on February 25, to clear doubts regarding poll duty.
A dedicated team is ready to clear any doubts of the poll process. Whatsapp Groups of all AC-wise Polling Personnel have been created for any queries. Some other new things that have been introduced in training of Polling Personnel are teaching of PwD signage to the Polling Officers for easy facilitation of PwD voters while casting votes, installation of webcasting cameras, booth apps for using on poll day, e-tracker application for tracking the polling personnel.
Trainings for Micro-observers and Polling Personnel for Absentee Voters have been held two times each. Training for Model Code of Conduct, in two phases, were conducted for all teams of AEO, VST, VVT, FST, Call Centre and Complaint Monitoring Cell, he said. Training for C-vigil App has also been conducted to provide awareness on how to use the App to check Model Code of Conduct violations. The EEM team was also trained in two phases. Training for Sector Officers regarding maintenance of law and orders, EVM, VVPAT working etc. was held at the SCERT Hall.
Regarding Media Certification, training was held for all staff concerned and for representatives of political parties and candidates. The training was also conducted for representatives of Candidates/Election agents for account reconciliations.
The nodal officer said that Presiding Officers will command the poll at the polling stations. They are the leaders who will exercise the powers of conduct of election rules and instructions of the Election Commission of India, and as such should perform their duties sincerely to let the people exercise their franchise in a fair and peaceful manner, he added.
All Polling Officers should carefully read all forms /handbooks/printed materials that have been provided to them and at the same time go through all documents on the day before the poll day, he said adding that they should also clear their doubts from the master trainers before the poll day.
