Voting held in 1.5 lakh Polling Stations across 475 Assembly Constituencies
New Delhi: Polling was conducted peacefully in1,53,538 Polling Stations spread across 475 Assembly Constituencies today, in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and for third phase of Assam and West Bengal, the Election Commission stated here today. The number of Polling Stations has increased in view of the fact that the number of voters per polling station has been reduced from 1500 to 1000 keeping social distancing norms in view.
Details of Electors, Polling stations & Observers in the poll are as follows:
To ensure inclusive and accessible elections, ECI extended the option of postal ballot facility to Persons with Disabilities, Senior Citizens above the age of 80 years, COVID-19 suspect or affected persons and persons employed in essential services. The Observers at the ground level oversaw that proper arrangements for facilitation were made available for these voters.
Total Number of PwD Electors = 906763
Total Number of 80+ Electors = 2152210
Details of PWD Electors and 80+ Electors are as follows:
As a major push for conducting free and fair elections, live monitoring and webcasting of more than 50% of Polling Stations including critical and vulnerable polling booths has been put in place as per ECI norms, to ensure safe and secure atmosphere in polling areas. Commission, CEOs, DEOs, Observers could watch live streaming and keep a close watch on these polling booths.
During the ongoing elections till this phase, a record seizure of Rs. 947.98 Crore had already been effected from the five states as on April 6, 2021. The seizure figure, which included seizure of cash, liquor, narcotics, freebies etc., was more than 4.198 times higher than the total combined seizure of Rs. 225.77 Crore in GE LA 2016.
The Commission said it has been laying specific emphasis on inducement free elections and curbing the malaise of undue money power, liquor, freebies. For effective monitoring a total 4606 Flying Squads (FS) and 4670 Static Surveillance Teams (SST) were operationalised to check movement of cash, liquor, drugs & freebies in these states/UT closely supervised by DEOs, Expenditure observers in Districts and Special observers. A total 19 Air Intelligence Units (AIU) of IT Department are also set at different stations in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
State wise and item wise break up of seizure report as till 06.04.2021 Forenoon
– global bihari bureau
