General elections have set district officials racing against time to make a whole lot of arrangements, particularly preparing the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and mobilising the all-important resources men and material.
Besides, they are gearing up for the last round of voter enrolment scheduled for Sunday (March 9). People can get themselves registered as voters at the predesignated polling booths from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on that day through Form-6.
The idea is to enrol the maximum number of people as voters in order to make democracy truly inclusive. A total of 3,521 polling stations have been arranged for the purpose of voting and enrolment of voters.
All persons aged above 18 have been advised to get registered as voters and if they have so far not done that, March 9 is the last chance.
Krishna district has a population of 46,27,803 and 29 per cent of them are aged below 18 years.
Out of 32,88,719 persons who should have already been enrolled as voters, only 31,76,086 (15,79,374 men and 15,96,486 women) were registered, according to official sources. The ratio of men and women voters as on January 31 when the electoral rolls were published stood at 1000:1011.
The district has two Parliamentary constituencies_ Vijayawada and Machilipatnam. Machilipatnam Parliamentary constituency comprises Avanigadda, Gannavaram, Gudivada, Machilipatnam, Pamarru (SC), Pedana and Penamaluru Assembly constituencies. Vijayawada Parliamentary constituency has Jaggaiahpeta, Mylavaram, Nandigama (SC), Tiruvuru (SC), Vijayawada East, Vijayawada Central and Vijayawada West Assembly constituencies.
Kaikaluru and Nuzvid Assembly constituencies fall in Eluru Parliamentary constituency. The district has 1,072 polling stations in urban areas and 2,449 in villages.
There is a requirement of 24,084 election duty officers and staff and 25,062 are readily available.
The condition of EVMs was checked at the Sub-Collector’s office in Vijayawada on Friday and a similar exercise was done in other parts of the district. Meanwhile, the Police Department has started planning for conducting the elections in a peaceful manner in view of the possible law and order problems in the run-up to and during the elections.
