Lok Sabha polls: Amritsar district administration identifies 589 polling stations as critical, 624 vulnerable

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, April 3

The district administration has identified 589 polling stations as critical while 624 polling stations have come under vulnerable category. There are a total of 2,126 polling stations in 11 assembly constituencies where people would exercise their franchise on June 1.

As per the information, Baba Bakala and Attari constituencies have the maximum while Ajnala has the minimum number of critical and vulnerable polling stations.

As per the data received from district administration, Baba Bakala constituency has the maximum number of critical polling stations (94) followed by Attari (91) and Jandiala (80) while Ajnala has the lowest number of critical polling stations (18).

Similarly, Amritsar South assembly constituency has 71 critical polling stations, Amritsar East 67, Amritsar North 52 and Amritsar West 45. Majitha and Amritsar Central have 25 and 24 critical polling stations respectively, followed by Rajasansi with 22.

These critical polling stations were identified by the district administration on the basis of their location in the vulnerable pockets and areas or where any sort of violence had taken place leading to lodging of an FIR during assembly or Lok Sabha polls in the past. Similarly, stations where re-poll was conducted owing to vitiated poll process and electoral offences such as booth capturing during the past five years were also brought under this category. The polling stations where polling was less than 10 per cent in the past also came in this category. The administration also kept in mind the intelligence inputs regarding abnormal law and order situation in any particular area while declaring a polling station as critical.

Baba Bakala (110) and Attari (112) constituencies also have the maximum number while Ajnala (16) has the lowest number of vulnerable polling stations.

Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer Ghansham Thori informed that observers from the Election Commission of India were also consulted before finalising the list of critical polling stations so that appropriate measures could be taken during polling.

He said the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) would remain present at these polling stations while returning officers would ensure proper videography and other monitoring systems would also be in place there.

Vulnerable polling stations were those which were located in localities dominated by minority communities or weaker sections of society.