Lok Sabha polls: RO Patil reviews preparedness

Warangal: With just five days to go for Lok Sabha elections, authorities have intensified efforts to put in place all the arrangements to ensure the smooth conduct of polling on April 11.

Returning Officer (RO) and Urban District Collector Prashanth Jeevan Patil held a review meeting with assistant returning officers of seven Assembly segments in the Warangal Parliamentary constituency here on Friday. The Collector directed them to ensure arrangements for the polling as early as possible. "A poll preparedness report has to be sent to the Election Commission (EC) by 11 am on April 8," the RO said, directing the officials to submit reports related to postal ballot, employee duty certificates etc.

He said that officials need to follow check list to ensure availability of necessary stationery beforehand.

He directed the officials to set up a Sakhi polling station, exclusively for women, and a general model polling station in each of seven Assembly segments – Warangal East, West, Wardhannapet, Parkal, Bhupalpally, Palakurthi and Station Ghanpur.

Further, he stressed the need for arranging wheelchairs in all polling stations. "The responsibility of transporting electronic voting machines (EVMs) lies with the assistant returning officers," Patil said.

Joint collector S Dayanand, Assistant Collector B Santhosh, trainee collector Manu Chowdary, assistant returning officers K Venka Reddy, Ch Mahenderji, N Ravikiran, M Malathi, E Venkatachary, L Kishan and L Ramesh, MEPMA PD Krshnaveni, e-district manager Sridhar, Collectorate AO Kiran Prakash and superintendent Santhosh were among others who attended the meeting.