EC sets up pink, ethnic polling booths across state

The Election Commission has set up ‘sakhi’ or pink polling booths for women and ethnic polling booths for tribal people across the state.

Women personnel will monitor about 600 sakhi polling booths in the state.

In Belagavi alone, 50 such booths have been set up. Thirty booths have been set up in Bidar, 24 in Mysuru and 124 in Bengaluru City, including Bangalore Rural.

Apart from this, 28 ethnic polling stations have been set up in places where the tribal population is high.

Kodagu has the highest number of tribal population, with 3,350.

Security along border

Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said, “We are keeping an eagle’s eye on the 18 districts bordering the neighbouring states to check the flow of money and other inducements, including alcohol, by the political parties to woo voters.”

A sum of Rs 1.75 crore has been seized from vehicles coming from Goa and Kerala. Over 1,540 officers have been deployed as flying squads and 2,131 as static surveillance teams in the state.