BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to ensure voters in Naxal affected districts do not have to travel long distances to exercise their franchise, no polling booths will be merged in areas affected by Left-wing extremism (LWE) and adequate security personnel will be deployed to avoid any untoward incidents.
Police sources said there are over 1,050 polling booths in areas affected by Naxalism. “During the upcoming elections, no polling booth in Naxal affected areas of Odisha will be merged. The decision was taken as the security vacuum has been removed and adequate arrangements made for the safety of polling officials and voters,” said ADG Law and Order, Sanjay Kumar.
In previous elections, polling booths were merged and located near camps of Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to shield them from Maoist attacks. “However, this time we are prepared and will ensure elections are held in a free, transparent and incident-free manner,” he said.
All districts affected by LWE have started confidence building measures among people in a bid to increase voting percentage in such areas. “Under the initiative ‘Ama Swabhiman, Ama Vote’, district police and BSF personnel are visiting polling booths affected by LWE. They are creating awareness on right to vote and are also informing locals on the dates of polls,” said Malkangiri SP, Nitesh Wadhwani.
Malkangiri, a Maoist citadel till a few years back, has around 100 polling booths in areas affected by LWE of which eight to 10 are highly sensitive booths. An inspector rank officer and other personnel are frequently visiting the booths in the district to instill a sense of security among voters, the sources said.
During rural polls in Odisha in 2022, several districts had requested the merging of polling booths after incidents of Naxal violence. For instance - Kalahandi district administration had urged the State Election Commission to merge 96 polling booths while Kandhamal district administration had sought the clustering of 94 polling booths.
Similarly in Malkangiri, where multiple villages are located in Swabhiman Anchal and voting had taken place for the first time during panchayat elections, the district administration had sought a merger of 80 sensitive booths to 20.