MALKANGIRI: After living under the shadow of left-wing extremism for more than a decade, residents of Maoist hotbed Swabhiman Anchal came out in large numbers to exercise their voting rights across polling booths in Chitrakonda block on Thursday.
Official sources said, the polling percentage was 73.74 per cent with 18,989 voters in the region casting votes across 106 booths in nine panchayats. In Jantri panchayat, people from various villages cast votes in 11 booths at Totaguda. As per reports, polling in all 18 panchayats, including nine in Swabhiman Anchal, went peaceful on the day, much to the relief of the police and administration.
Notably, the district administration’s focus was on Swabhiman Anchal from the day of poll schedule announcement and all security measures were taken to avert any untoward incident in the Naxal-hit region. DIG (South Western Range) Rajesh Pandit along with Chitrakonda SDPO Anshuman Dwivedi visited various booths and interacted with villagers while reviewing the security situation and election arrangements. Many booths were reportedly relocated for security reasons. “People in Swabhiman Anchal were excited to exercise their democratic rights as elections were held in the region after 10 years,” the DIG said.