The Election Commission of India has initiated the process for smooth conduct of elections and begun rationalisation of polling stations across the State.
The exercise has been commenced after the Chief Electoral Office reportedly received communication from the Election Commission that the State has tentatively been allotted 84,400 electronic voting machines and an equal number of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines for the elections whenever they are held. The State election authorities have accordingly commenced exercise on identifying the existing polling stations and adding new stations wherever necessary.
The exercise was mandated in the light of the reorganisation of districts from 10 to 31 and the election authorities accordingly initiated the process for redefining the limits of the existing polling stations and identifying new ones where they are required. “While in some districts necessary infrastructure is well set, but in others there are no facilities at all,” a senior official told The Hindu . Over 30,000 polling stations were set up across the State during the general elections held in 2014 and officials anticipate that there could be around 10% rise in the number of stations.
The officials are reported to have represented to the EC about the absence of adequate staff and necessary infrastructure for taking up the massive exercise and wanted steps to be initiated in this regard. “We have communicated the deficiencies to the EC urging the election authority to initiate action at the earliest so that we will be able to effectively handle the situation,” the official said. The development assumes significance in the light of the reports about the scope for advancing the elections at the State and Central level. The election authorities would utilise the data of summary revision of electoral rolls 2018 as base and ensure that additions/deletions made till the notification were incorporated into the data. The next election will be the first full-fledged election in the State after it was carved out in 2014. Although the AP Reorganisation Act was passed during the budget session of the Parliament in 2014, elections were held in the united State in two phases April 30 in Telangana and May 7 in residuary AP as June 2 was declared the appointed day for the two States to come into existence.
