Election preparations in Nizamabad pick up steam

Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has taken up Nizamabad Lok Sabha election as a challenge and is directly monitoring the election preparedness, arrangements etc on war footing basis to ensure that the election passes off smoothly without any problems.

Umesh Sinha, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner, ECI, New Delhi is in the city to take stock of Nizamabad election, as this is the first time that ECI would be using a dozen Ballot Units in each polling booth and this is also the first time that so many candidates are in electoral fray after introduction of EVMs.

Although the M3 version of EVMs can support 384 candidates by linking 24 ballot units to the Control Unit, ECI was not necessitated to use more than four BUs (which means the total number of candidates did not exceed 64) until now.

Addressing the media on Tuesday, Umesh Sinha said that they are fully geared for Nizamabad election and there are no thoughts of postponing it. Around 25,000 BUs, 2,000 CUs and 2,000 VVPATs are being procured from BEL for Nizamabad election and the gadgets are being dispatched and the total consignment is expected to reach by April 3 evening or April 4 afternoon.

"12 BUs would be connected to a CU and a VVPAT in each polling station. Until now only four BUs were used at a time," he said.

In view of the special situation, ECI is roping in special observers from New Delhi and also one sectoral officer would be assigned to five or fewer booths as against the practice of eight to ten booths for one sectoral officer. Supervisors and Zonal officers would also be assisting them.

Umesh Sinha said that First Level Checking (FLC) of EVMs would start from Wednesday (April 3) in Nizamabad and Jagital districts in which the seven assembly segments of Nizamabad parliament constituency fall.

Nizamabad Lok Sabha comprises seven segments Armoor, Bodhan, Balkonda, Koratla, Jagtial, Nizamabad (Urban) and Nizamabad (Rural) and the total number of voters is nearly 15.5 lakh.

In all, there are 1,788 polling stations with 1,272 polling stations falling in Nizamabad district and another 516 in Jagital district.

The ECI has deputed 600 engineers from BEL and ECIL and they will be commencing FLC from Wednesday onwards.

These engineers will be stationed in their allotted respective places until completion of the poll. The senior election official from New Delhi said that training of polling staff is being planned properly to ensure they get acclimatised to this special task.