Ahead of the campaigning for the April 19 Lok Sabha elections set to close at 6 p.m. on Wednesday to kick start a 48-hour silent period, the Elections Department has put in place elaborate logistic and security arrangements for the smooth conduct of the polls.
Addressing a press conference, A. Kulothungan, District Collector and Returning Officer, said in addition to the ten Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) companies to be deployed at the 232 critical and vulnerable polling stations, 48 additional special flying squads will augment the 31 border check point/static surveillance teams, 20 video surveillance and 10 video viewing teams.
Polling will be held from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. across 937 polling stations in the four regions of the Union Territory. The electorate of 10,23,699 voters includes 4,80,569 men, 5,42,979 women and 151 third gender voters.
Drinking water, chairs and benches have been arranged at polling stations. Priority will be given to elderly and pregnant women. The official advised women against bringing children to the booth. While voting slips have been distributed, eligible electors need to produce EPIC or any of the documents accepted as identity proof to be able to cast votes.
On the EVM front, a complement of 2,587 Ballot Units, 1,2574 Control Units and 1,323 VVPAT machines have been made available to serve 967 polling stations across 30 Assembly constituencies in the four regions---Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam. These include reserve equipment.
For the 739 polling stations in Puducherry alone, the department has readied 1,985 BU, 957 CU and 983 VVPAT machines.
The EVMs/VVPAT machines will be moved with police security from the strong room to all the locations on election eve.
The remarkable feature of the elections will be 60 all-women managed polling stations, including all the 31 stations in Mahe, 23 stations in Puducherry, five in Karaikal and one in Yanam, Mr. Kulothungan said. There will also be 11 all youth-managed polling stations in the UT, including eight in Puducherry. Besides, one station each in Puducherry and Karaikal will be managed by Persons with Disability.
During the 48-hour silent period, surveillance will be ramped up to enforce model code of conduct. No one from outside the Parliamentary constituency will be allowed entry to campaign. Police have been instructed to run checks on community auditoriums and wedding halls, the Returning Officer said.
A resource pool of 4,468 government employees have been trained for polling management. Moreover, 211 personnel with former experience as micro observers will be deployed at critical and vulnerable stations.
During the availability of home voting facility, 2,866 of the 2,974 voters (96.36%) including electors above 85 years of age, PwD and other disadvantaged persons, absentee/essential service voters had exercised franchise. Election officials will undertake the transportation of 345 voters from home to polling station and back.
So far, enforcement squads had intercepted Rs. 3.78 crore cash, Rs. 3.54 crore worth jewellery and seized 16,835 litres of liquor valued at over Rs. 30 lakh. A total of 13 FIRs were registered, 531 cases booked under the Excise Act and 131 arrests effected. A fine of about Rs. 24 lakh had been imposed during enforcement of MCC, Besides, the media certification and monitoring cell had imposed a penalty of Rs. 2 lakh on five candidates for running electioneering advertisements on social media platforms without prior permission.
