Basic facilities provided in polling booths in Kodagu

Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy said preparations have been completed for the Lok Sabha election.

She told reporters here on Tuesday that 22 candidates are in the fray in Mysore-Kodagu Lok Sabha constituency. The BEL engineers have already verified the EVMs, she added.

She said Kodagu district has 543 polling booths. All the polling booths have been provided with drinking water, ramp, toilets and electricity connections. The booth-level officers have started distributing EPIC cards of those whose names have been included in the electoral list recently, she said.

Out of 543 polling booths, 123 are sensitive booths. Security measures have been taken at these booths, she said.

One polling booth in Madikeri Assembly constituency and 53 polling booths at Virajpet Assembly constituency have been identified as wild elephant menace-affected booths. All precautionary measures will be taken to take officials to the polling booths. The Forest Department has opened a 24X7 control room. The officials have constituted teams to check elephant menace, she explained.

Annies said that 2,392 polling officials will be deployed for duty. The officials have already undergone two rounds of training. Already, 4,356 licenced gun owners have deposited their arms with their nearest police stations, she added.

She said the district had 3,090 people with disabilities (PWD) voters. Transport facilities will be arranged to ferry the PWD voters to the polling booth to exercise their franchise. A total of 70 autorickshaws and 76 jeeps will be used to transport them, she said.

The district administration has banned the sale of liquor in the district to ensure peaceful polling and maintenance of law and order. The sale of liquor has been banned throughout the district from 6 pm on April 16 to the midnight of April 18.