VIJAYAWADA: The poor facilities at some of the polling stations in Vijayawada irked the voters on Thursday. While some polling centres had inadequate drinking water facilities, several voters found that there was no shade for them to seek refuge from the searing heat. Adding to the woes, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) at some of the polling stations either malfunctioned or their setting up took time, delaying the entire process.
Some of the voters at Government Polytechnic opposite Executive Club even returned homes without exercising their franchise citing poor arrangements. “There was no drinking water provision, neither was there any shade arranged. We had to stand for 1.5 to 2 hours to vote. Some people left without voting, unable to stand under the sun for long,” said a sexagenarian standing in the queue. Since the officials concerned took time to provide water, private organisations, like Aayush Hospitals, swung into action and distributed water bottles. Another issue raised by the voters is the uneven distribution of the public to each booth.
The case in point: some of the booths had double the voters than the others in the same polling station. This, the voters said, resulted in the heavy crowd outside only a few booths. “Waited for over 1.5 hours. May take another 45 mins. 1,796 voters in our booth. Only 322 and 535 voters in adjacent booths. ECI, please ponder/ review next time! (sic),” BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao, who got his finger inked at Andhra Loyola College, tweeted.
While complaints were galore, there were a few others, who took the side of the electoral officials saying it was not an easy task to conduct polls. “It is fine to feel a bit of inconvenience for one day in five years. Since it is a matter of our future, we should take the issues in our stride and exercise our franchise,” Durga Bhavani, a homemaker, noted.