Ahead of the April 19 Lok Sabha election, the voter information slips, known as ‘booth slips’, will be distributed through the booth-level officers to voters between April 1 and 13, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said on Wednesday.
The booth slips will contain the basic details of the voters, including the part and serial number in the electoral rolls.
Addressing reporters in Chennai, Mr. Sahoo said that as of March 26, Tamil Nadu’s electorate stood at 6.23 crore: 3,17,16,069 women, 3,06,02,367 men, and 8,465 from the third gender. In addition to the 68,144 polling booths, the authorities were awaiting the approval of the Election Commission of India to open 177 auxiliary polling booths.
Mr. Sahoo said a total of 10,90,547 of the electorate were in the 18-19 age group and so they would be the “first-time voters”. There were 4,61,730 voters identified as differently abled persons. A total of 6.13 lakh voters were aged above 85. About seven lakh polling staff members were being imparted training to conduct the polling and the counting of votes. Of the 190 companies of the paramilitary forces meant for Tamil Nadu, 25 had been deployed and the rest would arrive from April 1.
He said that 648 passes had so far been issued for star campaigners. Election posters or defacement had been removed in 3,16,151 cases at public properties and in 1,16,342 cases at private properties, he said. About 45,000 web-streaming cameras would be installed at the polling booths. Based on the inputs from election observers, the booths would be categorised as critical or vulnerable.
At an event, Mr. Sahoo released ‘General Election-2024’, a handbook published by the Press Information Bureau. M. Annadurai, Additional Director-General, PIB (News), was present.
