All arrangements have been made in 967 polling stations across the four regions of the Union Territory for voting to commence from 7 a.m. on Friday for elections to the Puducherry Lok Saba constituency.
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On Thursday morning, the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were taken out of the strong rooms in the four regions and moved to the polling stations.
In Puducherry region, the machines kept at the strong rooms inside Women’s Engineering College and Motilal Nehru Government Polytechnic in Lawspet were moved to the polling stations by 11 a.m. The EVMs were taken in hired vehicles with police escorts.
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A total of 10, 23, 699 electors will be eligible to exercise their franchise. In order to ensure, free and fair elections, webcasting has been arranged in all the polling stations. In 239 vulnerable/critical polling stations, additional cameras are installed in the corridors to monitor law and order situation, Chief Electoral Officer P. Jawahar said in a release.
Voting will go on till 6 p.m. All arrangements have been made for voters to exercise their franchise without any difficulty. The booths are provided with ramps, braille stickers on EVMs, drinking water provision, medical kits, garbage bins for segregated waste collection. Senior citizens and differently-abled persons are provided separate queue, he said.
In addition to government officers and policemen deployed for election duty, around 1, 200 student volunteers would be available at booths to assist senior citizens, differently-abled persons and women with children to cast votes, he said.
Transportation facility is arranged for differently abled persons and senior citizens above 80 years. Around 340 persons have sought transportation facility to reach polling stations. The election department has arranged 37 vehicles for their transportation, District Election Officer A. Kulothungan told reporters at Women’s Engineering College.