THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Apart from District Collectors and top officers, there won’t be any other IAS officers in the state for the next two months. 30 IAS officers will be appointed in the northern states as observers and supervisors of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Chief Secretary Tom Jose have sent the list of these officers on the Central Election Director Nikhil Kumar’s request. They have to report to Delhi by 26th of this month.

They have the duty to arrange smooth election procedures even in Maoist regions. Officers are also tasked to observe campaigning and expense. IAS officers going for election duty:

Anand Singh, Ratan Khelkar, Kesavendra Kumar, S. Shanavas, Abdul Nazar, Muhammed Haneesh, Ajit Pateel, S. Harikishore, A. Shinamol, T. Mitra, Jaffar Malik, Veena Madhavan, S. Venkitesapathi, P. Balakiran, A. Shahjahan, P. Venugopal, K. Gopalakrishna Bhatt, K.N. Satheesh, Azgar Alipasha, Alkesh Sharma, A. Jayathilak, Rajan Khobragade, Rani George, T.V. Subash, N. Prashanth, Manoj Joshi, A Kowshigan, Dr. B. Ashok, U.V. Jose and N. Padmakumar.

Observation is not easy

• Officers need to travel across the constituency to find irregularities and illegal activities
• Need to be vigilant on whether the code of conduct is strictly followed
• Build confidence in the voter’s mind by providing security at Maoist and terrorist affected areas
• Need to find whether any rewards are given in exchange for votes
• Spend 2 hours a day to interact with maple.