NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha election is over a week away where an interesting contest will be seen between candidates from BJP, Congress and BSP.
While the candidates are all prepped up for the triangular fight, the election officers are also prepped up for maximum voting turnout with a series of new initiatives like setting up polling booths at high-rises and video surveillance of more than 50 per cent of polling booths, officials told this newspaper.
According to officials, of 3,048 polling booths, 1,598 will be covered by web cameras.
“The video recording and webcasting will be done at selected polling booths in all five assembly constituencies which have been categorized under vulnerable and critical. The move will allow better monitoring and prompt action in case of any irregularities there. However, the control access of the video feed will be with three officials—Returning officer, State election head and Chief Election Commissioner,” an election officer said.
“Besides, the police team will also remain active,” he added. Officials said that the number of vulnerable and critical polling centres have increased this year in comparison to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. There were 72 highly sensitive polling centers in 2019 which have increased to 92. In 2019, the number of sensitive booths was 454, which are 544 this time, according to the official figures.
The parliamentary seat will go to poll on April 26 with a total of 2,941,624 voters, which has been increased by 2.72 lakh from previous general election of 2019. For the first time, polling booths will be set-up in high-rises of the city.
Officials said that 32 condominiums have been identified from Indirapuram, Rajnagar Extension and Crossings Republik where 55 polling booths will be set-up.
“The city has very less rural population. It is the urban voters who worry us and constitute 80 per cent of voters. A majority of them rarely turn up to vote. So we decided to set-up booths in urban localities so that they don’t have to be concerned about travel,” they added.