1,170 employees on counting duty for 9 Jalandhar Assembly seats

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Jalandhar, March 2

To ensure smooth conduct of counting of votes for the Punjab Assembly elections on March 10, a training session was held on Wednesday at the District Administrative Complex for the counting staff for all nine segments falling in Jalandhar.

Chairing the session, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ghanshyam Thori said as many as 1,170 officials would be deployed across all nine counting centres. This included 540 counting personnel and 630 officials attached with Returning Officers.

Accompanied by Additional Deputy Commissioner Jaspreet Singh and Amarjit Bains, the DC said the counting centres have been set up on the premises of Government Meritorious School, Government Arts and Sports College and Director, Land Records, where elaborate arrangements have been made for counting. He said keeping in view the Covid-19 pandemic, two counting halls have been set up for each Assembly segment so that strict adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour could be ensured.

There would be seven tables in each hall, he said, adding that the counting supervisor, counting assistant and micro observers would be deployed at these tables. He also said that as per the ECI guidelines, no one, including candidates or their counting agents, would be allowed to carry mobile phones inside counting centres. The round-wise results would be uploaded on the ECI website and counting of next round would be initiated immediately after the completion of the preceding one. Meanwhile, the district-level master trainers imparted training to counting staff about handling of EVM machines during the entire procedure.