All steps being taken for smooth conduct of polls: RR collector

Rangareddy: Two days ahead of the Gazette notification on the Lok Sabha elections to be held next month, Ranga Reddy collector and election officer K Shashank briefed the media on Tuesday about measures being taken to ensure smooth conduct of the nomination process from Thursday at the office of the returning officer, Rajendranagar.

Apart from setting up RO at Rajendranagar mandal office, a control room and a help desk has been established at the place to monitor the entire poll process in the Chevella segment, he elaborated while addressing the press at Rajendranagar RO.

According to fresh statistics released by the collector, the entire Chevella segment--that consists of seven Assembly constituencies--has 29,28,186 voters as on April 16. Four Assembly constituencies--Maheshwaram, Rajendranagar, Serilinampally and Chevella-- come under Ranga Reddy district, while the remaining three constituencies, like Pargi, Vikarabad and Tandur, are part of Vikarabad district.

The collector said Bandari Srinivas Institute of Technology has been identified as the counting centre. This decision has taken after consulting political parties as the location of the counting centre is found suitable to connect from all sides.

Soon after the polling the EVM machines will be brought back to designated locations before being re-located to the counting centre at Chevella. The counting will be on May 4, the DC said.

For the smooth conduct of polling, he said, the Election Commission established 2,877 polling stations, including 53 auxiliary, 471 critical and 142 critical polling station locations.

Fresh statistics show that Rajendranagar has most 119 critical polling stations, followed by Pargi (72), Vikarabad (65), Serilingampally (57), Maheshwaram (56), Tandur (54) and Chevella (48). He said there will be special vigilance along with additional police at troubled polling stations. Changes will be made according to circumstances during the polling. People should avoid travelling with cash more than Rs.50,000 as the money confiscated during the police checks will be handed over to the grievance committee for further action. Action will be initiated against people found violating the election code of conduct,” the election officer warned.