Need to ensure ‘ethical voting’ sans any scope for apprehension

Rangareddy: Eschewing any mention about deterrence measures against the menace called bogus voters in the Rangareddy district, the Collector and District Election Officer Bharathi Hollikeri,elaborated the measures being put to play in all the eight assembly segments in the district to ensure free and fair elections.

The Rangareddy district with a whopping population of 48,97,840 people spread in all the eight assembly constituencies will go for a mandate later this month with a total number of 35,23,219 voters for whom the election commission has set a total 3453 polling stations.

Elaborating the measures before the media persons at district Collectorate office at Kongarkalan, she said, the election commission set up 3369 polling stations across the district in addition to 84 auxiliary polling stations with a strength of over 1500 voters.

Surprisingly, a significant number of such auxiliary polling stations were established in Maheshwaram constituency with a voter strength of 5,46,713 electors. However, the Serilingampalli, LB Nagar and Rajendra Nagar having similar or additional numbers of voters in the respective constituencies, got just 16, 03 and 07 auxiliary polling stations respectively. Chevella and Kalwakurthy with over 24 lakh voters failed to get a single such facility in their constituencies.

The collector explained the measures set into motion to check violations and discrepancies during the polling process in the district. “There were several new initiatives the election commission brought into being to check violations and inconvenience to voters and ensure transparency in the polling process,” she said.

Admitting that there are complaints regarding distribution of voter slips in several assembly constituencies in the district, she said, the field level polling staff is trying to sort out things and are told to help people find their slips at the earliest. “Voters can take the help of the concerned nodal officers and Booth level officers (BLOs) if they are having any issue in getting the voters slips,” she said.

Explaining that the webcasting is being introduced for the first time in four assembly segments in the district she said, “the measure will help monitor the polling process in every polling booth in all the four constituencies such as Maheshwaram, Rajendra Nagar, L.B.Nagar and Serilingampally simply through the command and control center at the district office Rangareddy at Kongarakalan.

Apart from this, the district election office said, every polling station designated as ‘critical’ in the district will have atleast two cameras, one inside and one outside, to keep a vigil over the polling process and roll out measures accordingly.

In order to avoid inconvenience, the election commission has rolled out a pick-and-drop service both for the people-with-disabilities (PWD) as well as polling staff to help them reach their destinations safely after casting votes and performing their duties.

Stressing for a need to adopt an ‘ethical voting’ pattern during the elections, she stressed that the voters should exercise their franchise their constitutional rights freely with overwhelming enthusiasm without going into apprehensions.

During an hour long meet the press programme, it was also noticed that the power supply was disrupted almost twice during the media briefing for quite

15 minutes.