Voting for first phase of panchayat polls peaceful

Enforcing Covid-19 protocol at polling centres biggest challenge for authorities

LUCKNOW: Polling for the first phase of panchayat election in 18 districts of the state ended under watertight security on Thursday. Barring a few incidents of violence and manhandling from some places, the election was by and large peaceful, senior election officials claimed.

Considering that the polling was held amid rising Covid-19 cases, the biggest challenge before the authorities was to ensure Covid-19 protocol at the polling stations. In Bareilly district of western UP, voters gathered in large numbers outside polling stations and violated social distancing norms. Several voters in several districts were seen standing in queue without wearing masks.

The crowd of voters grew thinner as the day passed. District magistrate of Bareilly Nitish Kumar said, “We directed polling officials and other support staff to ensure that social distancing norms were followed. The message is being resent to centres from where we are getting reports of crowding. As per directions of the election commission, we also distributed additional masks and sanitisers at every polling station for the use of voters.”

Arrangements were also made for thermal scanning of voters outside polling booths but hardly anyone was denied voting due to high temperature in any of the 18 districts.

The polling was also affected at Jagadpur village of the district after the symbol of one of the candidates was found missing from the ballot papers. Senior district officials rushed to the spot to constrain the situation.

In nearby Rampur which was one of the sensitive districts for polling, additional police forces was deployed at sensitive polling stations. Around 40 quick reaction teams were also deployed to monitor the situation in their respective areas during the polling.

Superintendent of police, Rampur Shagun Gautam said, “The polling exercise has been peaceful in the district with no major untoward incident. Our teams remained alert throughout the day. We have also made sufficient security arrangements for save storage of ballot boxes at designated place.”

Besides managing the crowd of voters, the district authorities also faced trouble handling a barrage of complaints from political rivals.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP) of Bareilly Rohit Singh Sajwan said, “We received over 300 complaints from various parts of the districts ranging from violence to false voting. Each of these complaints was looked into diligently and addressed. None of the reports of false voting was found to be true.”

As per directions of the election commission, we also distributed additional masks and sanitisers at every polling station for the use of voters NITISH KUMAR, District magistrate of Bareilly