TS fully geared up for Lok sabha polls today

Hyderabad: Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rajat Kumar said all arrangements are in place for the conduct of polls in 17 Lok Sabha segments of Telangana including the most challenging Nizamabad that has a record number of candidates in electoral fray. He stated that all voters who reach the polling station before closing time would be allowed to cast their vote even if the process goes up to 9 pm or 10 pm.

Addressing the media on Friday ahead of the polling day on 11th April, Rajat Kumar made a few appeals to voters so that they do not experience any inconvenience. He appealed to citizens having EPIC (Electoral Photo ID Card), especially the elderly, to check whether their name was in electoral rolls before going to the nearest polling booth to cast their vote.

"Our intention is that senior citizens should not experience difficulties in this hot summer. Due to various reasons like objections (Form 7) or absence during door to door verification, some of the names might have been removed from the electoral rolls. So, having a voter ID card does not entitle anyone to cast their vote. It is necessary that their name should also figure in electoral rolls and only then their EPIC would be useful in casting vote," Rajat Kumar said.

Further, he said that mobile phones are not allowed to be carried by the voters when they go to cast their vote in respective polling stations. ECI has given permission only to the Presiding Officer to carry a mobile phone in the polling station for communicating to superiors in case of an emergency or breakdown etc.

Hence, it is better for voters to leave their phones at home while going to exercise their franchise or they should leave their phones with family members or relatives when they enter the polling station, he stressed.

Rajat Kumar also explained that citizens carrying just voter slips would not be allowed to vote if they fail to produce any of the eleven documents like Passport/Driving Licence/ Aadhaar/ PAN/ Bank or Post Office Passbooks etc. Either they should carry EPIC or any of the documents to exercise their vote, provided their name figures in the rolls, he said.

The CEO said that all polling teams were dispatched with election material and all of them would reach respective polling stations by Wednesday night. Stating that mock polling in all 16 Lok Sabha segments would begin from 5.30 am on Thursday, he urged all polling agents to reach the venues on time.