All necessary steps have been taken to ensure that free and fair elections are carried out, N Prakash, Deputy Commissioner, DK, has said.
Addressing media persons at a news conference in his office in Mangalore on Wednesday, Mr. Prakash said that polling will be held in 544 booths across the district.
“As many as 70 polling centres have been identified as sensitive and 84 centres as hyper-sensitive. The police department has been directed to deploy more personnel and tighten security in these areas. Video surveillance will also be in place in these centres”, Mr. Prakash said and added that as many as 3,000 personnel have been deputed for election duties by the district administration. A total of 84 buses and 22 jeeps would be pressed into service for election duty and 47 Sector Officials along with 68 Police Sector teams will be part of election duty.
Polling would be carried out through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in all centres. New machines will be used for the purpose. In case of malfunction, extra machines have also been kept as standby, the Deputy Commissioner said.
Political parties are allowed to set up their camps outside a radius of 200 metres of the polling centre. However, the use of party flags and symbols in these camps is prohibited.
A total of 243 candidates are contesting elections from the 60 wards of Mangalore City Corporation (MCC). The Congress and the BJP have fielded 60 candidates each while the JD(S) has for the first time fielded 48 candidates. The CPI (M) is contesting for 14 seats while the SDPI has fielded 8 candidates. Other independent candidates are also trying their luck in the ensuring elections.
Voters may produce one of 21 documents at the polling booth for identification. These include passport, driving licence, PAN card, ration card, job card, senior citizen card.
The 379 voting centres have been set up for Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) polls where a total of 3,12,579 voters have been enlisted from the 60 wards of the Corporation. Similarly, 23 voting centres will be in place for Moodbidri Town Municipal Council elections where a total of 19,458 voters have been enlisted from 23 wards. For Ullal Town Municipal Council, which has 27 wards, 35 voting centres will be in place for the total voter population of 34,513. Bantwal Town Municipal Council polling will be held in 31 voting centres.The voting population here is 36,830 from across 23 wards. For Puttur Town Municipal Council which has 27 wards will have 42 voting centres for total voter population of 33,727. Belthangady Town Panchayath polls will be held in 11 voting centres and the voter population enlisted for the same is 5,140 from 11 wards. Similarly, Sullia Town Panchayath polls will be held in 18 centres, the enlisted voter population for which is 11,269 from 18 wards.
Voting will begin at 7 am and last up to 5 pm. The counting of votes will be carried out on March 11 (8 am onwards).
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