Though there would be no option for None of the Above (NOTA) on the ballot paper of gram panchayat (GP) polls, voters can exercise their right to reject all the contesting candidates in their respective ward by submitting a letter to the public relations officer (PRO) at their polling station, said Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer S. Sasikanth Senthil.
Talking to presspersons at his office here on Sunday, Mr. Senthil said, “The PRO of the polling station would allow the voters, upon request, to opt for NOTA while exercising their franchise. The officer would maintain the NOTA votes in a register and those votes would also be counted.”
The officer said that only the voters whose names were in the electoral rolls would be allowed to exercise their franchise. “The voters who are listed in electoral rolls, but do not have Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) can also cast their votes if they produce any one of the 22 alternative photo identity cards approved by the Election Commission,” Mr. Senthil said.
B. Kuberappa, joint registrar of cooperative societies and principal of District Training Institute, Davanagere, and Shivanand Kapashi, Commissioner, Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation, have been appointed as poll observers for Raichur and Lingasugur sub-divisions respectively, he said.
The election would be conducted for 1,095 wards in 174 Gram Panchayats in the district and 1,139 PROs and an equal number of Assistant PROs and other staff have been appointed for smooth conduct of the election. The total number of voters in the district is 10,08,318 (5,02,524 men, 5,05,638 women and 156 others).
Five GPs – Kavital, Sirwar, Maski, Turvihal and Balaganur – have been upgraded to Town Panchayats, while five others – Idapanur, Talamari, Nadigadde Malkapur and Hemanal – will not go to poll because of stay orders.
Superintendent of Police Chetan Singh Rathor said that as many as 2,200 security personnel, including 150 officers, 1,200 civil police, 500 Home Guards, seven battalions of Central Reserve Police Force, one battalion of Karnataka State Industrial Security Force and 50 personnel from the District Armed Reserve Police, would be deployed in the district to ensure smooth and peaceful conduct of polls.
“Of the 1,121 polling booths in the district, 274 are categorised as sensitive and another 178 as hyper-sensitive. We have made security arrangements accordingly,” he said.
To a question, Mr. Rathor said that no preventive arrests had been made, but preventive measures were taken by taking bonds from 130 people with a history in crime. “We have so far booked 75 cases in relation to illegal liquor supply and seized liquor worth Rs. 12.5 lakh,” he said.
