RAMANATHAPURAM
Ramanathapuram district is all set to have 60 new polling stations in addition to the existing 1,307 polling stations and Sivaganga 44 new polling stations in addition to the existing 1,310 for the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Officials in Ramanathapuram have identified the 60 polling stations after the Election Commission of India (ECI) said it proposed to use Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) to provide feedback to voters using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and suggested that no polling station should have more than 1,200 voters in rural and 1,400 voters in urban areas.
After carrying out the rationalisation exercise, the officials found 47 polling stations in rural areas and 13 in urban areas having number of electorates exceeding 1,200 and 1,400 respectively and suggested creation of 60 booths across the district.
After the draft list of the polling booths was published on July 2, Collector S. Natarajan held a meeting with representatives of recognised political parties on Tuesday and considered their claims and objections. The list would be sent to the CEO and after the ECI gave its nod, the additional booths would be established, they said.
In Sivaganga, officials have identified 44 polling booths having more than 1,200 and 1,400 voters in rural and urban areas respectively. The list of booths would be finalised after a meeting to be held by Collector G. Latha with representatives of political parties on July 13, the officials said.
V. Ramesh, Election Tahsildar, Sivaganga, said like Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga also received a new set of 3,310 EVMs and 1,800 control units from Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bengaluru, for the coming Lok Sabha elections.
The EVMs and control units, which were used in the 2016 Assembly elections, had been sent back to the ECI. The new set of EVMs and control units were brought in three vehicles with police security, he said.
