Ambika Sharma
Tribune News Service
Solan, April 6
Ensuring voting of Covid patients for the municipal corporation (MC) elections tomorrow has become a tough task for the administration due to their rising numbers and the detection of the UK mutant considered more infectious.
“As many as 90 Covid cases have been detected in the MC area till last evening and more could be added till this evening. We are calling every Covid patient to make arrangements for their safe polling. Out of the 90 patients, only 30 have expressed willingness to vote. A large number of students from other districts, who reside in Solan, are among the Covid patients and they do not have votes here,” informed Ajay Yadav, Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Solan.
In view of the daily surge in Covid cases, the officials face a tough task in ensuring voting. “Ambulances will be made available to the Covid-afflicted persons which will carry them from their homes to the polling booths. They will be allowed to vote after the completion of polling by other voters in their respective booths while adhering to all safety protocols,” informed Yadav.
“Though voting is supposed to be completed by 4 pm tomorrow those standing in the queue are permitted to vote. The polling could go on till 6 pm. Covid patients would be taken to the polling booths after that,”added the SDM.
Given rapid surge in Solan in the last fortnight, more cases of UK variant were likely to be detected. Being the more infectious variant, officials have an arduous task at hand in ensuring safety of the Covid-hit voters.
Six polling booths have been declared sensitive while four have been declared hyper sensitive out of the 36 total booths in Solan MC. As many as 36,435 voters will exercise their right to vote tomorrow in the maiden municipal corporation polls.
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