Over 1,693 polling stations designated as critical in RR

Rangareddy: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the statistics being released by the Collectorate Rangareddy district on Sunday squarely speaks about an increase of over 60,000 voters during the last four months that include 19,350 electors having age more than 85 years.

As against the total number of 35,22,420 voters recorded as of November 11, 2023 in the Rangareddy, the number has now risen to 35,85,426 that include 18,46,387 male and 17,38,609 female electors. This translates into an increase of 63,006 voters in the district. The fresh statistics shows that a number of 24,021 male and 39,009 female voters have been included in the electoral rolls during the same period.

During a much delayed press meet on Monday, which was scheduled to be started at 3.00 pm but began at 4.15 pm at the district Collectorate, the District Collector K Shashanka said all arrangements are being made to ensure free and fair elections in the district.

While addressing the media the Collector said, “A number of 72 flying squad teams and a similar number of Static Surveillance Teams have been constituted besides 23 video surveillance teams in the district to keep an eye over the polling process and ensure transparency.”

Out of a total number of 3,369 polling stations being established in the district, over half of them, which comes to around 1,693, were designated as critical by the district administration. “There would be special vigilance teams along with additional police force being deployed at troubled polling stations in the district,” said the official.

Following the release of the election schedule, the Collector said, Model Code of Conduct came into effect in the district.

“The notification will be released on April 18 while filing of nominations will begin from April 29. Following the scrutiny of nominations on April 26, the applicants will be allowed to withdraw their nominations by April 29. The polling will happen on May 13 and the results will be declared on June 4. The whole election process will end on June 6,” the official elaborated.

As the election code of conduct has already been imposed in the district, he said, no public meetings, political campaigns and gatherings will be allowed without prior permissions.

“Nodal Officers have been appointed to deal with the complaints about violations of code of conduct. People can dial the toll free number ‘1950’ to register violation. Besides, C-Whistle App too was made available to raise grievances and complaints. Cases will be registered against those who violate the election code of conduct,” warned the Collector.

The Collector stated that the elderly and disabled voters above 85 years of age can enjoy ‘vote from home’ facility. They only need to fill 12-D form and hand it to the concerned BLOs within five days of the election notification i.e. April 22. When the Hans India brought Collector’s attention towards the issue that local political activists especially in Rajendra Nagar and surrounding areas are found involved in distribution of voters information slips (VISs) by their own instead of nominated election staff, the collected expressed his displeasure and assured that election staff will be directed to avoid such practices and follow the rules strictly.

“Negligence on the part of officials and violation of election code of conduct will not be tolerated and strict action will be taken whoever is found guilty of breaching the poll code,” the Collector warned.