TN poll panel agrees to video record all polling booths during rural local body polls

Chennai, Oct 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) has agreed to do video recording of as many polling booths as possible during the rural local body polls.

The submission was made by Advocate General S. Shanmugasundaran before the Madras High Court on Friday.

The first bench of the Madras High Court represented by Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D. Adikesavalu recorded the submission made by the AG during the hearing of a writ petition filed by the AIADMK for elaborate security measures during the rural local body polls in nine districts. The polls are to be held in two phases on October 6 and October 9.

Advocate Vijay Narayan, representing the AIADMK, argued that the state election commission (SEC) had decided to record only 20 per cent of the booths by installing CCTV cameras in them.

The SEC, according to the AIADMK, had agreed to record only the crucial events. Vijay Narayan insisted that there has to be a 100 per cent recording of the elections.

He argued that with the technology available at present, it would not be a major task to ensure 100 per cent recording of the polls. It may be noted that Vijay Narayan was the Advocate General during the tenure of the previous government.

The court also recorded the submission by the AG that observers would be appointed at the block level. The AIADMK had argued that observers have to be appointed at the block level instead of appointing an IAS officer at the district level.

Narayan argued that the district-level observer may not be able to cover all the polling booths and hence block-level observers have to be appointed, which was agreed upon by the SEC.

CCTV cameras would also be installed both inside and outside the strong rooms where the ballot boxes would be kept. This was another request made by the AIADMK before the court.

Source: IANS