Over 3.32 lakh staff, 1.3 lakh cops on election duty in State
20% additional EVMs at officials’ disposal to be used as replacements
CHENNAI: Over 3.32 lakh government employees and 1.3 lakh police personnel would be deployed on election duty in the State on Friday. The Tamil Nadu Election Commission has also roped in retired police personnel and ex-servicemen in the State and armed police from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh in addition to the 190 Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) for the election duty to ensure free and fair polls in the State.
A total of 12,220 ex-servicemen, and 1,931 retired police personnel in the State have been roped in for the election duty, while 3,500 armed police personnel from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh have been roped in addition to 190 Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) to be deployed on election duty in the State that goes to the first phase of the polls, TN Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo told journalists at the Secretariat while briefing on the arrangement for the general polls on Friday.
The voting would commence at 7 am and continue till 6 pm. The electorates who are on the premises of the polling station on or before 6 pm would be given tokens to enable them to vote, he said Before the beginning of actual polling, the election officials would carry out mock polling in the presence of booth agents. A total of 50 votes would be exercised, as part of the exercise, to check the electronic voting machines. “We have 20 per cent extra EVMs to replace, if any machines develop technical snag. A zonal level team, comprising BHEL engineers and polling officials, will also attend to the issues in the polling machine immediately and act accordingly to ensure smooth conduct of polling,” he said.
He also pointed out that they have identified as many as 8,050 polling stations as sensitive and 181 polling stations as critical. They have arrived at these numbers as sensitive and critical polling stations after holding elaborate discussions with the representatives of the political parties and general, police and expenditure observers. “After the polling, we will retain 15 companies of CAPF. they will be engaged in the first line of three-tier security arrangements in the counting centre,” said Sahoo
More than a lakh out of 6.14 lakh elderly persons and PwDs exercised their franchises through postal votes.
The EC has also taken efforts to arrange pick up and drop facilities for electorates aged 85 years and above and the persons with disabilities. “If they can contact the call centre 1950 or raise a request in the Saksham App for pick up and drop. The district election officer will take necessary measures,” he said and also noted that they have made arrangements to facilitate the PwDs to exercise their franchises without trouble. Elderly, pregnant women and PwDs would be given priority in the queue to vote.
“Web cameras are being installed in 44,800 polling stations in the State, which has a total of 68,321 polling stations in 39 constituencies. It will be monitored by a web camera system,” Sahoo added.
On postal votes, Sahoo said the officials on election duty can vote postal votes till 6 pm on April 18.
Those who are unable to vote at the training centres can send their votes through a register post to the Returning Officer of the respective constituency. “The Election Officers will take necessary measures to dispatch the postal votes to the counting centres by June 3,” he said.