Inter-State coordination meet held for Assembly Elections

A consultative meeting on preparatory arrangements for the forthcoming Legislative Assembly General Elections – 2026 was held at the Coimbatore District Collectorate under the chairmanship of District Collector and District Election Officer Pavankumar G. Giriyappanavar, IAS.
The inter-state coordination meeting was convened with District Collectors and Superintendents of Police from Kerala districts bordering Coimbatore—Ernakulam, Idukki, Palakkad and Thrissur—to strengthen election preparedness, border surveillance and law-and-order management.
Participating District Collectors included M.K. Madhavikutty, IAS (Palakkad), G. Priyanka, IAS (Ernakulam), Dinesan Cheruvath, IAS (Idukki) and Arjun Pandian, IAS (Thrissur).
Senior police officials present were Dr. K. Karthikeyan, IPS (Coimbatore), Ajith Kumar, IPS (Palakkad), K. S. Sudarshan, IPS (Ernakulam – via video conference), K. M. Sabu Mathew, IPS (Idukki) and R. Ilango, IPS (Thrissur). Asha Sharma, IPS, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Coimbatore, also participated.
District Forest Officers of the respective border districts, Deputy Commissioner of Excise officials, Deputy Superintendents of Police, Central Railway Protection Force personnel, Police Inspectors, Commercial Taxes officials, Naresh Kumar, District Pioneer Bank Manager, Assistant Returning Officers, District Collector’s Personal Assistant (Elections) Maheshwari, and Tahsildar (Elections) Thanigaivel were among those present.
During the review, the Collector presented details on polling arrangements in border constituencies—111-Mettupalayam, 117-Kaundampalayam, 122-Kinathukadavu, 123-Pollachi and 124-Valparai. Information on inter-state and inter-district check posts along Kerala, Erode, Nilgiris and Tiruppur borders, past election seizures of cash, gold and liquor, recent enforcement data, licensed firearms and preventive security measures was shared. Discussions focused on joint border monitoring, coordinated inspections, installation of surveillance cameras, deployment of additional personnel, intelligence sharing, security at sensitive polling stations, and verification of cross-border voter entries. Enforcement agencies including Commercial Taxes, Excise, Income Tax and banking authorities were instructed to intensify monitoring to ensure free and fair elections.