Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Mukesh Kumar Meena inaugurated the first phase of training classes organised for Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) at the Chemical Engineering Block of Andhra University, in view of the upcoming general elections, here, on Monday.
Addressing the participants, Mr. Meena said that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), voters lists, and election officers were crucial in the election process, and this was completed. Returning Officers (ROs) and AROs play a vital role in the successful conduct of the elections.
He said that though AROs would have participated in the conduct of general elections in the past, the fresh guidelines issued by the Election Commission should be implemented, without any deviation, in the upcoming general elections to the Lok Sabha and Assembly Constituencies.
A total of 1,000 election officials would be trained across the State, in three phases. The first phase of the training will be conducted in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati. The training programmes would be completed by the end of this month.
He said that national-level master trainers would conduct the training and they would take the participants through the entire election process to create full-fledged awareness among them. He called upon the participants to get their doubts, if any, regarding the procedures, clarified by the master trainers.
District Collector A. Mallikarjuna said that the voters list of the district was prepared in a transparent manner, as per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the State CEO. He expressed confidence that the training programme would enable the officials to conduct the elections in the district in a smooth manner.
District Revenue Officer K. Mohan Kumar, Joint Collectors of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Anakapalli, Paderu, Paravatipuram-Manyam, and Srikakulam districts and AROs participated.
