Jharkhand Elections: Postal ballot voting begins 2.20 hours late in Dhanbad

SUBHASH MISHRA

Dhanbad, May 17: Postal ballot voting on the Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat began 2.20 hours behind the schedule on Friday.

The postal ballot voting time was scheduled for 9 am but it could start at 11.20 am.

The magistrate on duty, Ramji Tigga, said that due to the delay in the arrival of ballots and polling box, voting started late. The ballots and box arrived at around 10.30 am.

Voting begins at 11.20 am

After installing the ballot box, verifying the lists of voters and other processes voting could be started at 11.20 am.

However, nodal officer Dr Rajkumar Singh said that polling began smoothly and would be completed in scheduled time.

Election on Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat is scheduled in the 6th phase on May 25.

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Postal ballot for doctors, health staff

For voting of doctors and health staff, who are deployed on emergency poll duty on May 25, first time a postal ballot booth has been set up at the conference hall of the civil surgeon’s office so that they can exercise their franchise today (May 17).

In this regard, the Postal Polling Cell nodal officer of the health department for the Lok Sabha election 2024, Dr Rajkumar Singh, issued a notification for doctors and health staff, deployed on election duty, to ensure their voting at the civil surgeon office-based booth on May 17 between 9 am to 5 pm.

Total number of postal ballot voters is 190

The nodal officer, Dr Rajkumar Singh, said that the total number of voters in the booth is 190. Besides the health department’s doctors and health employees, the electric department and BSNL staff who are on May 25 elections duty, were postal ballot voters.

Since the voting process began late, a massive queue of voters assembled in a congested civil surgeon’s office. Since all voters had to attend their election training programme at different places, they appeared at the booth early morning.

Some of the health staff of Bokaro and Baghmara reached the Dhanbad civil surgeon’s office at around 8 am to cast a vote at 9 am but had to wait for a long time.