As the first phase polls to ZPTCs and MPTCs began on Sunday morning, the officials at the election control room on the Collectorate premises were glued to the big television screens that were showing the proceedings at the polling stations, especially the sensitive ones.
At one hand the minders of the discipline in polls kept their watchful eyes on the live proceedings at six polling stations, at the other, the developments in the need of rapt attention of the authorities kept flashing on the screens, thanks to the webcasting from the sensitive booths. It was a fun-filled learning experience for the students of the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada (JNTUK) who were roped in for webcasting from the sensitive stations. 71 were identified as sensitive and hyper-sensitive. All facilities needed for webcasting were in place with technical support from the JNTUK students. Equipped with laptop , one student was engaged at each polling booth, while a team of 12 headed by professor J.V.R. Murthy were stationed at the control room .
However, webcasting was not possible at 77 booths owing to power failure and network issues, but the proceedings at the remaining 494 stations went live.
