Web cameras for vulnerable booths in Tirupur

As many as 105 polling stations out of the 1,508 booths in Tirupur Lok Sabha constituency had been identified as vulnerable/critical.

“We will set up web cameras in those 105 booths and post micro observers apart from the other polling personnel,” District Collector and Returning Officer for Tirupur constituency G. Govindaraj said while interacting with journalists here.

Mr. Govindaraj, who is the also the District Election Officer for Tirupur revenue district, added that 240 polling booths out the 2,120 set up in ‘Tirupur revenue district’, which had five Lok Sabha constituencies falling under its jurisdiction, had been identified vulnerable/critical.

On ‘unaccounted cash seizures’ which have invited wide spread criticism, the Collector said that Rs. 46,80,020 out of the Rs. 57,45,020 seized from different persons as part of the election Model Code of Conduct in the 28 cases registered in the district till Sunday, had been returned to the respective people after due verification.

The total number of polling booths in Tirupur Lok Sabha constituency, which was set at 1,506 in the initial stages of poll preparation, had now gone up to 1,508, with the addition of two more booths.

“Both the two new polling stations come under the Perunthurai Assembly segment. With this, 227 polling booths will be there in the areas under that Assembly constituency limit,” Mr. Govindaraj said.

The Collector said that a total of 10,176 polling personnel would be deployed in ‘Tirupur revenue district’ and the training for them had commenced.

Our Udhagamandalam Special Correspondent adds:

A sum of Rs. 78.78 lakh which was reportedly being transported in violation of the election code of conduct has so far been seized by flying squads at various check posts in the district, said the District Election Officer and Nilgiris Collector P. Sankar while speaking to presspersons here on Tuesday.

In this connection, 29 cases have been registered. After verification and production of records, a sum of Rs. 28.96 lakh pertaining to six cases has been released.

Eleven cases relating to violations have been registered against various political parties. To a question, he said that poll boycott threats have been received from some parts of the district.

Most of them had been called off following talks held with the people concerned.