At a time when the district administration is busy making arrangements for the smooth conduct of the elections, finding a venue for counting of votes has become a headache for the officials, with most of the educational institutions not willing to share their premises for the purpose.
Though the representatives of the institutions are not expressing their unwillingness openly, some of them are citing vague reasons. The officials need to identify three premises as the venues for storage and counting of votes to be polled for three Parliamentary constituencies. Going by the norms, these buildings should be in good condition and should not belonged to any political party either directly or indirectly.
Though the district has a good number of educational institutions, a majority of the managements are supporting one political outfit or the other. After scrutinising the list and zeroing in on some educational institutions, the officials are now facing the reluctance from the managements to share their premises.
A representative of a noted college, on condition of anonymity, told The Hindu that the government paid nominal amount for allocating the premises for counting of votes. “Cleaning the premises in the aftermath of the counting process is a gigantic task. Moreover, damage to the furniture is also very common occurrence during such occasions,” he said.
It is learnt that a couple of educational institutions have cited non-completion of annual examinations as the reason for their ‘inability’ to allocate their premises for the purpose. The district officials have chosen two newly constructed buildings of the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada (JNTUK) for the counting of votes of Kakianda Parliamentary constituency. “Our students are already suffering from shortage of classrooms. Since there is a need to cooperate with the officials for elections, we have agreed to allocate two blocks for the counting of votes,” G.V.R. Prasada Raju, Registrar of the JNTUK said.
