Officials gear up for ZPTC, MPTC polls in West Godavari district

Eluru: West Godavari district Collector Revu Mutyala Raju has said that arrangements have been made for the peaceful conduct of ZPTC and MPTC polls in West Godavari district. He said that 23,58,687 voters will exercise their franchise to elect the representatives to the ZPTC and MPTCs in the district on April 8.

Collector participated in the videoconference conducted by principal secretary, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Gopalakrishna Dwivedi, Commissioner Girija Sankar and State Election Commission joint secretary K Kannababu on Monday on conducting of polls.

Mutyala Raju said that the polling will be held in the district from 7 am to 5 pm. He informed that the polling will be held up to 3 pm only in the agency areas of Polavaram, Velerupadu, Buttaigudem, Jeelugumilli and Kukunuru. He said that 11,013 ballot boxes are kept ready and officers are appointed to supervise the election.

Mutyala Raju said the district administration has appointed 456 micro observers for the 942 sensitive and hypersensitive areas in the district. Referring to Covid-19 guidelines, the collector said instructions were issued to the staff to follow the Covid guidelines like wearing masks, washing hands with sanitisers, maintaining physical distance etc.

He said that the district administration has arranged thermal scanners, masks, sanitisers, gloves, PPE kits, tents, drinking water facility, medical teams etc at the polling stations. He said the police department will take care of the maintenance of law and order and would ensure peaceful polling.

He also said the arrangements are underway for storing the ballot boxes in the strong rooms and instructions were given in this regard. Collector said that voters slips distribution programme is underway and will be completed by Tuesday.