Imphal, February 18, 2010: The State Election Commission has prepared a tentative schedule of the District Council elections and the same schedule would be forwarded to the Government for cabinet approval.

An official meeting on the District Council polls was held today under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary.

The meeting was attended by the Principal Secretary (TD), DGP, Commissioner (Revenue), State Election Commissioner and State Election Commission Secretary.

The meeting studied the tentative programme prepared by the State Election Commission which envisaged completion of all poll processes by April.

The meeting agreed on submitting the programme to the State Government for Cabinet approval.

It discussed about the number of security personnel and polling personnel that would be required for the ADC polls.

The meeting agreed on instructing the relevant authorities to work out these requirements.

Meanwhile, the State Government has already accepted the delimitation report submitted by the Delimitation Commission.

Following the acceptance, the State Election Commission is working to publish the final electoral rolls.

Notably, each of the six District Councils has 26 seats.

Of these 26 seats, two would be nominated while the remaining 24 would be elected through adult franchise.

Assembly secy: With retirement age of the present Manipur State Assembly Secretary approaching, necessary process to appoint a new Secretary is underway.

According to a source, present Assembly Secretary Th Megharaj would be retiring at the end of the current month.

It is being considered whether service period of Megharaj would be extended or a new Secretary be appointed.

In case the service of Megharaj is not extended, it is possible that an officer of Assembly Secretariat who fulfilled requisite criteria may be promoted or an IAS officer may be appointed Secretary on deputation or a native officer working in Parliament may be appointed Secretary.

As of now, no definite decision has been taken on whether the service of Megharaj would be extended or who would be appointed Secretary.

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