(MENAFN- AsiaNet News) Preparations for the upcoming local body elections are underway in Kerala, with postal ballots and ballot labels now ready. The first batch of ballot labels and postal ballots was received by Thiruvananthapuram District Collector Anu Kumari from Printing Director Amir C.A. at the Government Central Press.

Kerala Local Body polls will be held in two phases on December 9 and 11. Counting will be held on December 13. The model code of conduct has come into force across the state. Elections are to be held in 1199 of the total 1200 local bodies in Kerala.

DC on Poll Preparations

Speaking to ANI, Thiruvananthapuram DC Anu Kumari said, "As a part of our preparation for the local body elections, printing of the postal ballot papers and making them reach each of the districts is a very important step. So, today, symbolically, we had the inauguration kind of ceremony in which the ballot papers, which had been printed, were symbolically handed over to me. Ballot papers have been printed for the Idukki district, and for Thiruvananthapuram, it is ongoing. We will receive that also shortly."

"So, things are going smoothly, and I am happy to share that despite SIR as well as the local body election work parallelly happening, the teams across and the entire staff have been working tirelessly to make both ends meet for both processes," she further said.

Field-Level Challenges

She said that it is a team activity. "It has to be undertaken by each one of us. Our field-level BLO goes from house to house. We are under lot of pressure because it is a time bound activity. We have local body elections happening parallelly we did not get the anticipated support from the BLAs, the agents so it became more difficult from the BLOs, as most of them were new to the places. In Trivandrum we have distributed 92 per cent of forms. Eight per cent are untraceable people. We are reaching out to resident associations and flat associations, as no eligible person should be left. Many volunteers have come forward like college students and they are sitting with BLOs," she said.

Digitisation Success and Confidence

She further added that the BLOs are confident that they will be able to finish most of the activity by November 28. "Some of the BLOs are very experienced. Some BLOs are meticulously planned. There are booths which are smaller in size. Lesser effort is required there. BLOs have finished off distribution, collection, and digitisation in time bound manner. We had 100 per cent digitisation by November 22nd. Most of the people were not aware of digitisation process. We conducted training for them. We conducted hands-on digitisation camps. After doing initial 100 they get onfidence," she added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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