Counting centres in Villupuram and Cuddalore districts, where electronic voting machines will be kept for the next 30 days, have been brought under round-the-clock security and surveillance.
Besides the deployment of the armed Central Reserve Police personnel and local police, laptops fitted with web cameras will be monitoring the entry and exit points of the buildings of these centres.
Watchtowers have been erected and armed guards posted to keep a vigil from vantage points.
Soon after the sealed EVMs were brought to the centres after the closure of polling on Wednesday from 2,672 booths in Villupuram district and 1,995 booths in Cuddalore district, their numbers were verified and put in the strongroom.
While the officials have placed the seal bearing the government emblem on the doors of the strongroom, the candidates, whoever so desired, too have also been permitted to put their own seal. The candidates or their general agents will be allowed to inspect the counting centres during the period.
The officials of the National Informatics Centre and the Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu will be available to attend to any problem that might arise in the laptops.
The videography recorded through the laptops will be fed to the unified control room in the Collectorate from where the District Electoral Officers can keen an eye on the counting centres.
All the counting centres have been provided with uninterrupted power supply, and fire tenders and fire extinguishers too have been stationed there. Barricades have been erected to cordon off the area.
