For a change, polling staff are not tensed up in Palamu ahead of Lok Sabha polls tomorrow 

THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK

 

Daltonganj, May 11: Palamu is all prepared to vote on May 13.

The administration has dispatched all the polling officials to their respective booths. There are 1470 polling stations in Palamu’s four assembly constituencies under the Palamu Lok Sabha segment.

The mood of the dispatched poll officials was upbeat. There was no anxiety on their faces. They just looked at their parties whose one or two experienced hands would be a troubleshooter in the conduct of EVM, CU, BU, VVPAT etc.

Three elections back it was a life-threatening poll duty. It was all for the extremism. Today the scene has changed.

Delight replaces danger  

The danger is being replaced by delight today but no one is foolish enough not to believe in Palamu that extremists are never trustworthy and it is they who can make or mar peace.

SP Reeshma Ramesan looked more relaxed today than she used to look days back.

She did a small walk talk with this correspondent saying that with two sorties our polling parties eight in number have been airlifted and dropped safely by the chopper for the polling stations where they are to conduct voting on May 13 in the foothills of Burha Pahar.

Returning Officer Shashi Ranjan’s terrific speed is evident in his press briefing and also when he is out interacting with officials right at their desks.

His press briefing is such a rapid one-way ticket to information that before a journalist gets time to collect his query, he is on some other issues. But Shashi Ranjan gives a level playing opportunity to every journalist to lob queries to him. He answers it.

Presiding officers learn EVM tips

This correspondent saw a nervous-looking presiding officer at the EVM training booth asking the master trainer Parshuram Tiwary to demonstrate how to operate the EVM. Tiwary didn’t disappoint him.

There was another presiding officer there who used to err when it came to the Close button of the EVM. Here Tiwary advised the man not to be impatient but to read the message on the screen.

There were lighter moments when a lady presiding officer removed her hand mirror from her purse and began refreshing her lipstick. Even in poll duties, no one wants to look ugly, quipped one male officer.

A mother-in-law had come to the dispatch centre to wish her poll official daughter-in-law all good luck.

A couple of journalists including The Jharkhand Story correspondent had a bad experience when security officials at the Chiyanki airstrip just slammed the gate on the faces of the journalists refusing entry inside the airstrip to take shots of the chopper.

The security officials had a mortal fear then that these journalists taking camera shots for the chopper would be harmful to the frame of security. It was a mind-boggling attitude of the security officials.