About 100 students of Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (RGUKT) Nuzvid IIIT campus have been deputed for covering Panchayat elections in Nuzvid Division, to be held on Tuesday (July 23).
Engineering second year students left for the Gram Pancahyats (GPs) on Monday, for conducting the web-casting of the election process, said IIIT Director Ibrahim Khan.
The officials identified 166 hypersensitive and 214 sensitive villages in Machilipatnam, Vijayawada, Nuzvid and Gudivada divisions in Krishna district. The authorities have decided to arrange video coverage in hypersensitive panchayats and web-casting in sensitive villages.
Speaking to The Hindu on Monday, Prof. Khan said that the district administration had asked the IIIT to depute students for covering panchayat elections.
“Our students reported to the officers on Monday. The RGUKT students had earlier covered by-elections in Nellore, East Godavari and other districts”, said Prof. Khan.
The Mandal and Division Election Officers and the District Election Officers can watch the election process in each panchayat at their respective offices and at the District Collectorate.
Even the Election Commission of India can monitor the elections Panchayat-wise, said an election officer.
Joint Collector P. Usha Kumar said that video coverage would be arranged in hypersensitive areas and micro observers would monitor the poll process in the remaining panchayats. Nuzvid Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) B. Subba Rao said that 5.65 lakh voters would exercise their franchise in the first phase of polling. In all, 7,760 polling officers and assistant polling officers were deputed on election duty in Nuzvid Division. Security has been beefed up with Civil, Andhra Pradesh Special Police and Armed Reserve forces, particularly on Khammam-Krishna district borders, said the Joint Collector.
