District Election Officer reviews vote counting arrangements

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 9

The preparations for the counting of votes for the Punjab Assembly elections on March 11 have been accomplished.

District Election Officer (DEO) KK Yadav and Police Commissioner Arpit Shukla today held meetings with returning officers and police officials to give finishing touches to the arrangements regarding the conting process.

Yadav said the counting of the votes for the Punjab Vidhan Sabha elections would start at 8 in the morning on March 11. He said all preparations regarding the counting had been made.

He said for the counting of the votes in the nine Assembly constituencies, the preparation of counting halls, establishment of control rooms, media centres and other requisite arrangements had been made.

On the occasion, Police Commissioner Arpit Shukla said along with security, adequate parking arrangements had also been made. He said a route plan had been prepared by the police regarding this.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Girish Dayalan, Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Gurmit Singh, tehsildar elections Raj Kumar Tangri, among other officials, were present during the deliberations.

Kapurthala: The Kapurthala administration too has made all arrangements for the counting process of the state Assembly polls. There will be two venues for counting. While counting for Kapurthala, Sultanpur Lodhi and Bholath constituencies will be held at Virsa Vihar Kapurthala, that for Phagwara will be held at Ramgarhia Polytechnic College Phagwara.

Deputy Commissioner Gurloveleen Sidhu said the counting for 756 polling stations would be held in 54 rounds.

He said about 200 employees had been deployed for counting. There would be 14 tables for each constituency, each having a separate supervisor, assistant supervisor and a micro-observer. He added that other than observer, no one else would be allowed to take mobile phone inside the counting centre.

Guided tour for candidates to counting halls

On the directions of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the CEO Punjab has instructed all deputy commissioners (DCs) of the districts to hold a meeting and guided tour of the candidates to the strongrooms and counting hall on Friday. All returning officers and counting agents in Jalandhar have been conveyed to have a meeting with all candidates in the counting hall premises at 12 noon. During the tour, the counting arrangements and counting process would be explained to the candidates without compromising the security of the strongrooms.