10 Gram Panchayats Merged With Rajahmundry Municipal Corporation

East Godavari district collector Keerti Chekuri has announced the merger of 10 gram panchayats with the Rajamahendravaram Municipal Corporation. Nine of the gram panchayats are from the Rajamahendravaram Rural mandal and one is from Kadiyam mandal.

The merger has come ahead of the local body elections in the EG district, which are to be held in two or three phases.

The collector said elections would be held for 342 gram panchayats across 21 mandals, apart from the Rajamahendravaram Municipal Corporation and Mandapeta, Nidadavole, and Kovvur municipalities. The final electoral roll, published on September 7, has 13,43,601 voters in 4,040 wards,

The voters include 6,67,950 men, 6,85,603 women, and 48 from the third gender voters. There are 12,208 scheduled tribe voters, 2,79,034 scheduled caste voters, and 5,32,385 backward class voters. 5,19,974 voters belong to the other caste categories.

Keerti Chekuri said the district administration has identified 4,398 polling stations at 1,479 locations. 2,556 of these have been classified as normal, 926 as sensitive, and 916 as hypersensitive. Pink ballot papers would be used for sarpanch elections and white ballot papers for electing the ward members. The administration plans to print around 32.40 lakh ballot papers. There are estimates that 6,390 ballot boxes would be required.

There will be 4,812 presiding officers, 4,812 assistant presiding officers, 7,710 polling personnel, and 2,149 micro-observers. Counting personnel would be trained to identify valid and invalid votes and record results.

Election-related arrangements have been completed in Mandapeta, Nidadavole, and Kovvur municipalities, with ward delimitation, voter lists and polling station identification finalised.

Mandapeta has 36 wards with 49,059 voters and 72 polling stations, Nidadavole has 32 wards with 35,086 voters and 49 polling stations, and Kovvur has 28 wards with 34,452 voters and 52 polling stations.

The collector directed officials to ensure security during transportation and distribution of ballot boxes, their return after polling, and their storage. Strong rooms and counting centres would be equipped with CCTV cameras, barricading, and lighting and security arrangements.

Superintendent of police D. Narasimha Kishore said there will be digital photography, webcasting, and additional security at sensitive and hypersensitive polling stations. Officials had been asked to inspect every polling station physically and ensure drinking water, power supply, toilets, ramps, and adequate lighting.