BHUBANESWAR: In Nabarangpur, voters of hamlets like Gurmaiguda, Talang, Tangnikot, Bagra and Jholaguda in the cut-off area of Indravati will no longer have to cross the reservoir to reach the mainland to exercise their franchise.
This election, they can vote from the convenience of their own area, well within the reservoir. The chief electoral officer (CEO) has facilitated setting up of new booths within Indravati reservoir to reduce the travelling time of the voters.
Under Nabarangpur Assembly constituency, reserved for ST, two new booths have been set up to cover the five hamlets under Tentulikhunti block. There are 431 voters in the hamlets that are located close to one another within the reservoir. While one booth (no 268) has been set up at Tangnikot to cater to 158 voters of Jholaguda, Bagra and Tangnikot, another (no 269) has come up at Gurmaiguda where 273 voters of both Gurmaiguda and Talang will vote. Previously, these voters had to navigate 10 to 15 km, both by boat and road, to reach a polling booth.
Aiming at upholding the right to vote by electors, the chief electoral officer and the state administration set up 203 new booths like the ones in the Nabarangpur segment this year in several areas including topographically diverse and geographically-challenged locations across the state to reduce the distance voters had to cover to reach their nearest polling booths.
Officials in the office of the CEO informed that in the past elections, voters in the cut-off villages within the Indravati reservoir in Nabarangpur had to take boats to reach Kenduguda to cast their vote. But this time, the polling party will cross the reservoir on motorboats and conduct voting at the two new booths from 7 am to 4 pm.
After 40 minutes of boat ride through Indravati, they will travel another 1.5 km by road to reach the Gurmaiguda booth and a further 5 km to the next booth at Tangnikot. Both the booths have been equipped with basic facilities for voters’ convenience. As the area does not have electricity, generators have been installed in the booths.
Similarly in Balangir, a new booth has been set up for persons affected by Lower Suktel irrigation project. The booth has come up at the rehabilitation (R&R) colony at Larkipalli which comes under the Balangir Assembly segment and has over 500 voters. While there are three R&R colonies for those displaced by the lower Suktel project, the highest number of 300 families reside at Larkipalli colony. “This is for the first time, they will vote in their own colony where the local high school will be used as a booth. In the past, including the panchayat polls, they had to travel back to their dam site villages like Pardhiapali and Magurbeda in Loisingha block, 20 km away, to vote,” said a district official.
There are a total of 37,809 polling booths, the majority being in rural areas, in the state for the ensuing twin elections. Apart from the 203 new booths, 89 auxiliary booths have been set up where the number of voters surpassed 1,500 as per guidelines of the Election Commission of India. One such auxiliary booth is at Rasabeda under the Chitrakonda segment where a new booth has been established for the convenience of Bonda voters living in the lower Bonda hill.
“Since the Rasabeda booth had more than 1,500 voters, a new booth was formed at Gadiput. While the Rasabeda booth now has 896 voters, the new one at Gadiput has 744 voters,” said an official of CEO's office.