7,881 polling stations in Himachal Pradesh, max in Kangra

Shimla, October 31

As many as 7,881 polling stations, including 7,235 in rural areas, have been set up for the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections slated for November 12.

Kangra district has the maximum 1,625 polling stations while Lahaul and Spiti district has the lowest number of 92 polling booths. Besides, three auxiliary polling stations will also be set up at Sidhbari in Dharamsala, Bara-Bhangal in Baijnath and Dhillon in Kasauli, a spokesperson of the Election Department said here today.

The maximum of 1,511 voters are registered under the Sidhbari polling station while the least number of 16 voters have been registered under Ka in Kinnaur district. Chask Bhatori in Bharmour segment of Chamba district is the most remot polling station, where the polling staff will have to walk 14 km to reach there.

Some of the other remote polling booths, where the polling parties will have to walk for five to 10 km, include Manch in Shahpur (Kangra), Shakti in Banjar (Kullu), Manjhagan in Sundernagar (Mandi), Bobri in Shillai (Sirmaur) and Pandar in Rohru (Shimla).

Meanwhile, in order to ensure fair poll, the Himachal police have constituted 238 flying squads and 238 static surveillance teams. The Home Department has also given 25 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces to the state, which have been deployed on the state borders along with the state police.

As many as 279 cases have been registered in the past 15 days under the Excise Act so far. Besides, 10,414 litres of illegal liquor has been seized and a total of 68 cases have been registered under the NDPS Act.