Now, Oppn worried about security at strong rooms

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 25

After raising questions over the Ludhiana MC polls, candidates and their supporters seem to be worried about security of strong rooms, where EVMs have been stored. The workers of political parties or kin of Independent candidates are keeping a check on strong rooms day and night.

They accused the authorities of not making any arrangement to install CCTV cameras inside the strong rooms. Moreover, they also said that there was no proper lighting at the strong rooms.

The workers of BJP, Lok Insaaf Party and Independent candidates have raised questions about the strong room setup at Government College for Girls (GCG). They claimed that a door of the strong room was weak but their complaints were being ignored.

Munish Kumar, a BJP worker at ward 56, said: “We were assured that CCTV cameras have been installed, but live footage of only area outside the strong room is available, which, too, was interrupted for some time when power supply went off around 10 am. We don’t know what is happening inside, as cameras have not been installed inside the strong room.”

Raghav, a worker of Lok Insaaf Party, said: “We spent the night near the strong room and also slept there. We are not satisfied with the security arrangements. There was a need to make foolproof arrangements for the strong room.”

An independent candidate from ward 54, Pawan Kumar himself kept a vigil on the strong room. Earlier, opposition parties had blamed the Congress for bogus voting and booth capturing. However, senior Congress leaders have denied such allegations.

As many as nine strong rooms have been setup at Kundan Vidya Mandir School, Malwa Central College of Education, Khalsa College for Women, Government Polytechnic College, Government College for Girls, Arya College, Government College, MGM Public Senior Secondary School and Guru Nanak Public School, where counting of votes would take place on February 27.

However, the district administration and police officials claimed that all necessary arrangements have been to ensure security of the strong rooms. Refuting the allegations, a police official at a strong room in GCG, said everything was fine and the strong had been sealed properly. There is proper security arrangement here, he said.