- CEC reviews poll arrangements in Kumaon

By our staff reporter
Nainital, 9 May: Chief Election Commissioner Naveen Chawla held a meeting of the officials and reviewed the preparedness of the government machinery for the coming Parliamentary Elections, here. Present at the meeting were Chief Election Officer, Uttarakhand, Radha Raturi, Commissioner, Kumaon, S Raju, IG, Kumaon, Ashok Kumar, the DMs and Police Chiefs of all districts, and the Election Observers.
Later, addressing a press conference, he announced that free, fair, impartial and peaceful elections would be conducted. Any attempt to woo the voters by unlawful means would not be tolerated.
Referring to a question regarding distribution of liquor among the villagers, which has become a norm in the elections, to lure them to vote in favour of a particular candidate, he said the Election Commission would keep a watchful eye and any such incidents reported would be investigated and, if found true, an FIR would be lodged against the candidate and stern action would be taken.
Senior citizens and handicapped persons would be allowed to go to their polling booths by conveyance. All sensitive and hypersensitive polling booths would be videographed, though adequate security arrangements had been made to foil any unlawful attempts. Electronic Voting Machines, if they break down, would be replaced immediately in easily approachable areas and the time to replace them in distant places would not be more than one and a half hours, said Chawla. He also invited suggestions and complaints from the representatives of various political parties.
The total number of voters for the two constituencies in Kumaon stand at 23,04,444, out of which 11,32,657 are women. As many as 98.51 percent voters
have been issued voter Identity Cards. Some 461 booths have been identified as sensitive and 187 polling booths as hypersensitive.
For successful completion of elections, 16,042 officers and personnel have been deployed, with 1868 officers and personnel remaining in reserve. As many as 138 officers and personnel have been deployed as Micro Observers.