District collector Bhandari Swagath Ranveer Chandh says all is well for election day
Kottayam: District collector Bhandari Swagath Ranveer Chandh told reporters here that the administration has taken extensive steps to facilitate everyone to exercise their franchise. Eighty-two candidates from the district are contesting elections on Monday from nine constituencies on 32 different symbols. Thirty one of these candidates are independents.
The mock poll will begin at 6 am in the presence of election agents and officials. Bulk SMS having political messages are banned. Around 11,247 employees from the state and Central government sectors will be undertaking the election related functions at 1,411 polling booths in the district.
This includes 5,196 state government employees, 152 Central government employees, 3,677 employees in the government aided sectors, 1,625 employees in the public sector undertakings, and 621 bank employees. A police force of 2,942 personnel are in charge of security.
The polling stations were equipped for differently abled, and Braille facility was introduced in some stations. Among the 1,411 polling booths, the ramp facility is there in 1,406 polling booths.
There will be a presiding officer and two polling officers at the booths, and a booth level officer will be deputed in each booths. The district administration has identified 46 polling booths in the district as sensitive booths and 14 booths as critical polling booths.
Additional police officers will be deputed at the sensitive locations, whereas there will be webcast at the critical booths along with additional police presence. The Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), system was introduced at 142 booths in the Kottayam assembly constituency.
The election commission had deputed three general observers and one expenditure observer in the district. Women police officers will be in charge of the security of twenty polling booths. There will be 31 flying squad vehicles, 27, statistics surveillance team, 18 video team and 9 video viewing team for monitoring the election related activities. Total voters in the district – 15,54, 714, women – 7,59, 680, Men – 7,95, 034.
