Preparations underway for polling: DC

Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer Hephsiba Rani Korlapati has said that all preparation for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections are underway in the Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency.

Speaking to media persons, the deputy commissioner said that the first and second-round training sessions for the polling officials have been completed and the micro observers will undergo training on April 10. The first round of randomisation is completed, she added.

Help of BEL

“The work on the commissioning of the EVMs with symbol loading is being held the presence of BEL technical staff. The preparations for EVMs and VVPATs have also begun in all the Assembly constituencies. Funds of Rs 48.91 lakh is released for the repair work of the polling booths from the government. The infrastructure is offered in all the polling booths in the district. The voters slips for 6,48,885 voters have been distributed and the remaining voters will receive the voting slips within the next couple of days,” Korlapati said and added, “The voters slip has more details like the name of the polling station and a small map to guide.”

There are 956 presiding officers, 956 APROs, 1,912 polling officers and 250 micro observers in the district. Additional polling officials will deployed in the polling stations with a large number of voters, said the deputy commissioner.

25 Sakhi booths

“Udupi will have 25 Sakhi—all woman polling booths. Each Assembly constituency will have five Sakhi booths. There are three polling booths completely managed by persons with disabilities and one ethnic polling booth,” she explained.

“As many as 70 web castings are arranged. Also, Rs 23,50,290 lakh cash was seized in 13 cases that were reported in connection with the violation of poll code of conduct. All the seized amount has been released after the verification. About 15809.86 litres of liquor were seized by the Excise Department and another 11.70 litres were seized by the Police Department,” she listed out.

cVigil

Further, she said, “As many as 112 cases are registered under cVigil applications, of which 77 complaints are inquired and disposed of. Remaining are considered to be fake.”

The officer said that the district stands first in the state for early disposal of cases registered under cVigil applications. As many as 66 cases are disposed of within 100 minutes.

She added that as many 3,695 weapons are surrendered and nine are exempted. Polling officials belonging to the Christian community are exempted from election duty following the representation by the community to Election Commission.