(1) The Collector or any other Officer authorised by him shall appoint a Presiding Officer and Polling Officers for each Polling station as he thinks necessary but he shall not appoint any person who has been employed by or on behalf of or has been otherwise working for a candidate in or about the election:
Provided that only Officers of the Government, Local Authorities, Co-operative Institutions or Undertakings owned by the State / Central Government or Aided Schools may be appointed for this purpose:
Provided further that, if a Polling Officer is absent, the Presiding Officer may appoint any person who is present at the Polling station other than a person who has been employed by or acting on behalf of the candidate or has been otherwise working for a candidate in or about the election, to be the Polling Officer and inform the Returning Officer accordingly.
(2) A Polling Officer shall if so directed by the Presiding Officer, perform all or any of the functions of a Presiding Officer under these Rules.
(3) If a Presiding Officer, owing to illness or other unavoidable cause, is obliged to be absent himself, from the Polling station, his functions shall be performed by such Polling Officer as previously authorised by the Returning Officer to perform such functions during any such absence.
(4) It shall be the general duty of the Presiding Officer at the Polling station to keep and maintain public order there at and to see that the poll is conducted in a fair manner.
(5) For conducting election to the offices of the Presidents and members of Distributory Committees and Chairmen and members of Project Committees; the Collector or any Officer authorized by him may appoint one or more Presiding Officers as may be necessary to assist the Returning Officer in conducting the election.
6. Polling stations,— (1) The Collector shall arrange to publish a list of proposed Polling stations for the Territorial Constituencies of Water Users Associations in Form-27 for Major, Medium and Minor Irrigation Systems and call for objections if any. Such objections shall be lodged within next day of publishing the list. These lists shall be displayed on the Notice Boards of the office of the concerned Panchayat and Panchayat Union.
(2) After receiving the objections if any, the Collector shall consider all such objections and finalize the lists of Polling stations and publish the list in Form-28 on the next day. The lists so finalised shall be displayed on the Notice Boards of the office of the concerned Panchayat and office of the Water Users Association.
(3) Conduct of more than one election simultaneously.— A notified Polling station can be used for the purpose of conducting election either for a member of Territorial Constituency of a Water Users Association or a President of a Water Users Association, The Officers appointed for the purposes of conducting one election shall be deemed to have been appointed for the purposes of holding all other elections so held simultaneously at that Polling station.
CHAPTER - 3 ELECTORAL ROLL FOR WATER USERS ASSOCIAT ION