THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, March 14: If it is BSSP (Bijli, sadak, shouchalaya, pani) to be assured at a polling booth, it is ST (strong room) at one room of booth every 10 booths this Lok Sabha election!
First, it’s ST. There is going to be one sector magistrate for ten booths.
One room of one booth out of the ten booths will exclusively double up as a Strong Room.
Here, under the strict supervision of the sector magistrate and impregnable security cover, EVMs, Control Unit, Ballot Unit, VVPAT, and other vital documents and poll papers will be stocked in that 1 room, which may be seen as a new version of the mini cluster.
A polling party is to reach the polling booth straight away. In times of cluster, there used to be a big kitchen. Now that the cluster is out, food is an issue.
The nodal officer of the postal ballot cell, Anurag Kumar Tiwary, the SDM Sadar, said, “Palamu administration is ensuring all comfort and no inconvenience to polling parties.”
MDM at schools lodging booths
“If the polling booth is at the government primary or middle school, we have our MDM (mid-day meal) set up there, like a kitchen shed, hearth/gas stove, utensils, etc. There is a woman Rasoyia there,” reminded SDM Sadar Tiwary.
The SDM Sadar said, “If our polling party desires to have food from our MDM team, then the polling party is free to order food for payment, and the MDM team will prepare and serve food for them.”
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Summer picnic
It will be like a summer picnic as polling looks set to be in any of the weeks of April.
Fresh food is being prepared for them, and that, too, is the choice of the polling personnel on payment. What better way to have fresh food in summer than this? Opined Tiwary.
Women cook waits for D-Day
The Jharkhand Story correspondent spoke to one woman cook of the government’s newly created primary school at Semartarn and asked her if she could, on payment, prepare food for the polling personnel. The woman Rasoyia said, “Let this day come. Polling personnel will relish having food prepared by me. They will remember its taste for long times to come.”
The woman cook said on Wednesday, “I am preparing MDM. It is of katahal ki sabzee and rice.”
The headmaster of this school, S Kumar, showed a very small Didi ki Baree where tomatoes, green chilli, coriander, etc., were being raised.
“If there is any hotel by the side of the polling booth, and there must be many as a large number of the polling booths are located in the government schools which have roads to reach, the polling officials may spend money and have their food in the hotel,” added the SDM Sadar.
Electricity issue
However, there is some electricity issue. It is where the polling booth is set up at Panchayat Sachivalaya.
Within the Chainpur block limits, at least two panchayat sachivalayas have come under the ambit of the Medininagar Municipal Corporation, and the electricity supply is shut here.
One official of the Chainpur block said, “Wiring is there in both the panchayat sachivalaya, but the power supply is disconnected.”
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BSSP’s availability
Palamu administration is working hard to ensure the BSSP’s availability. Each of the 1,796 booths must ensure this AMF BSSP.
SDM Sadar Tiwary informed the concerned booth-level officer that to keep the polling booths free of minor defects or deficiencies, like fused electric bulbs, dirty tube well platforms, or choked drainage, the officer will receive 1000 rupees each for the upkeep of the booths.
Transporting EVMs
Great caution is to be exercised when transporting used or unused EVMs.
Under no circumstances will the presiding officer or any member of the polling party indulge in the prohibited act of transporting EVMs used, which means polled ones or empty EVMs not required in the voting, in their personal car, jeep, bike, etc.
All EVMs are to be transported from polling booths to the collection centres using only the dedicated vehicles hired by the administration. No private car or candidate’s vehicle is to be even thought about. It’s a sin that ECI asks its poll officials not to commit.
Many brawls and protests have been witnessed when EVMs, even the unpolled or unused ones, were found being transported in private cars, etc, by the presiding officer or any polling team member.
Public anger touches sky-high, and no time is lost in declaring polling has been rigged and EVMs tampered with.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, one presiding officer, having a polling EVM with him in his cosy car, made a brief stop at a roadside tea stall, and word spread like wildfire that one EVM was found abandoned at a tea stall here in Daltonganj.
The administration swung into action and saved the situation from worsening. Trust in the polls was lost in seconds, and demand for repolling started then and there.
SDM Sadar Tiwary reminded officials of the PWD building, RCD (road construction department), electricity, drinking water, and sanitation departments, etc., to be in full alert mode as their services can be obtained at the shortest notice at the polling booth.
