SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, May 12: As many as 481 100-plus voters will bless the candidates in the four Lok Sabha constituencies-Khunti, Lohardaga, Palamu and Singhbhum-which go to poll tomorrow.
During voting, these voters have been given the facility to take the option of postal ballot or voting at home.
There are 64.58 lakh voters in these four constituencies.
According to statistics furnished by Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar, 35,235 voters are 85 plus, while the number of PwD voters is pegged at 1,03,768. There are 5 overseas voters too.
Women will take charge of 519 booths; 14 will be managed by persons with disabilities and youth will take charge of 7 booths.
15,040 cameras to keep an eye on elections
Meanwhile, the Election Commission will keep a close watch on the voting with 15,040 cameras.
The Chief Electoral Officer said that all the polling stations of Singhbhum, Khunti, Palamu and Lohardaga will be monitored with cameras inside and outside.
“Webcasting of all these cameras is being done at the District Election Officer level, Headquarters level and Election Commission of India level,” he added.
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Inspecting the webcasting room set up at the state headquarters level on Sunday, he said that the cameras have been installed at polling stations and their feeds have been checked. “Through these cameras, the activities happening inside and outside the polling area are being monitored. Arrangements are also being made to check its feed in case of any complaints,” he added.
Air ambulance
There is also a provision for air ambulance to deal with emergencies.
23 unique booths
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Dr Neha Arora said that the departure of polling parties and security forces is being continuously monitored through GPS and app.
Election personnel have been sent to many polling stations by helicopter.
Among them, maximum heli-dropping has been done at 126 polling stations in the Singhbhum parliamentary constituency. Polling personnel have been transported through helidropping to 27 polling stations of the Lohardaga parliamentary constituency and 8 polling stations of Palamu.
She said that a total of 30,380 polling personnel had been deployed for polling.
There are a total of 45 candidates in the fourth phase of elections. Among them, the maximum number of candidates is 15 in Lohardaga and the least is 7 in Khunti. Among them, 36 are men and 9 are women.
There are a total of 7,595 booths. Among them, there are 639 booths in urban areas and 6,956 booths in rural areas.
Dr Arora said that all the booths are model polling stations. Of them, 23 booths are unique. These booths have been developed by the concerned district as per the specialities there.
