CUTTACK: Voting in 60 per cent of the polling stations in Cuttack district will be monitored through live webcasting, said collector and district election officer Vineet Bhardwaj here on Sunday.
Addressing mediapersons, he said officials deployed for conducting the general elections shall keep a tab on the expenditure incurred by candidates of different political parties. The general elections will be conducted in two phases in the district. While voting in six Assembly segments and the Parliamentary constituency will be held on May 25, polling in the rest three Assembly constituencies will be held on June 1.
A total of 21,41,904 voters including 11,00,021 male, 10,41,619 female and 264 transgenders will exercise their franchise in the elections. While as many as 45,218 new voters in age group of 18 to 19 will exercise their franchise for the first time, the district has 829 centenarian and 41,992 PwD voters.
“A total of 2,274 polling stations including 460 in urban and 1,814 in rural areas are going to be set up in the district. At least 287 ‘Sakhi Booths’ (solely managed by women) will be set up in the district. Of the total polling stations, as many as 1,364 (60 per cent) will be directly monitored by Election Commission of India through live webcasting,” said Bhardwaj.
Assured minimum facilities like ramp, drinking water, separate toilets for male and female, electricity, furniture helpdesk and signages will be put up at all the polling stations.
“We are prepared to conduct free, fair and peaceful elections. Apart from setting up an integrated control room with toll-free number 1950, the C-Vigil Application has also been activated for receiving complaints from people. Officials of expenditure monitoring teams have been imparted training on keeping a tab on election expenditure,” said Bhardwaj.
Among others, ADM (Revenue) Umakant Raj, ADM (General) Shibo Toppo, ADM (Development) Dibya Lochan Mohanty and sub-collector Jyoti Shankar Ray were present in the press conference.
Battle of ballot
21,41,904 voters including 11,00,021 male, 10,41,619 female and 264 transgenders will exercise their franchise
45,218 new voters in age group of 18 to 19 will exercise their franchise for the first time
2,274 polling stations including 460 in urban and 1,814 in rural areas are going to be set up in the district