Voting time modified in Nizamabad LS

Hyderabad: Poll timings in Nizamabad parliamentary constituency have been modified and now voting will be allowed from 8 am till 6 pm in 1788 polling stations on April 11, when voting takes place in all 17 Lok Sabha segments in Telangana.

Also, in 17 Maoist-affected polling stations spread over 13 Assembly segments, voting will be held from 7 am to 4 pm. However, the poll timings in the rest of the polling stations in 16 LS segments have not been altered and voters could exercise their franchise from 7 am till 5 pm.

CEO Rajat Kumar said the decision was taken as mock polling, on the morning of the polling day, would be taken up from 6 am to 7 am in Nizamabad LS segment. Normally, mock polling would be completed in an hour, but since the number of candidates in the fray is very high (185), extra time is being given to complete the process and hence polling would commence from 8 am in all 1788 polling stations falling under the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat.

He also said that independent candidates, a majority of whom are from non-political background, had sought postponement of the election citing various problems, but the ECI did not agree to their request.

Kumar further stated that a meeting arranged with candidates in Nizamabad was fruitful as authorities addressed all doubts and queries of the independent candidates and they also expressed satisfaction.

He said the FLC (First Level Checking) and candidates setting in 2209 sets (each comprising 12 Ballot Units,1 Control Unit and 1 VVPAT, which takes 6 hours of time for each set, has been successfully completed and all machines are ready to be dispatched.

Although the number of polling stations are 1788, a few extra sets of BUs, CUs and VVPATs are being kept ready to be sent immediately wherever technical issues are seen, the CEO said.

The Election Commission has readied an helicopter in Nizamabad and as per its directions temporary helipads are being readied in each of the seven Assembly segments of Nizamabad so that the CEO and senior officials could visit different polling stations and monitor the process on April 11.

Rajat Kumar said their request to use ex-army men for poll duty was not accepted by the ECI, which however gave green signal to use NCC and NSS volunteers, if required.

Responding to a query about the Congress' complaint to the ECI raising objections to use Pragati Bhavan for party activities by the TRS, he said that he had forwarded the complaint to the ECI.