Amid security, counting to begin at 7 am in city

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 22

Jalandhar is all set for the hectic counting of votes which will begin at the Land Records building, also known as the BLR Building, tomorrow. The counting of votes at 1,836 booths, spread across nine constituencies in the Jalandhar constituency, will begin at 7 am.

18 rounds of counting for Shahkot, Nakodar booths

DC Varinder Sharma as well as Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the counting would be held in 18 rounds for booths of Shahkot and Nakodar at the counting hall set up at the BLR office here. While the DC and the CP took mediapersons to the building today, he said foolproof arrangements had been made amid tight security for counting of votes.

The duo said while strongrooms for seven of the constituencies had been set up at the BLR Building, two more had been set up at another nearby building. A gate between these two buildings will remain open to ensure regular checks.

The DC said while the votes of every constituency would be counted by an Assistant Returning Officer (ARO), who got the poll conducted, to ensure a smooth conduct of the counting process, four general observers had also been put on the task, including the one that was already deputed. Of these, two are IAS officers while two are officials of the Karnataka Administrative Service.

CCTV coverage

The DC said while the counting will be covered by CCTV cameras, live coverage from all nine counting centres (for nine constituencies) will be available at the control room where the DC will be present. Activities outside all strong rooms will also be recorded. A wired feed of these will be available at the gate of the bulding housing the strongrooms.

The DC said votes of five Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines from each of the Assembly segment would be counted separately after the counting of votes from the Electronic Voting Machines as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court. The DC said the process this year will take at least three to four hours extra for the counting of the five VVPATs.

As many as 18 rounds of counting would be held for 247 booths of the Nakodar Assembly segment, 18 rounds for 244 booths of Shahkot, 17 rounds for 236 booths of Phillaur, 16 rounds for 219 booths of Kartarpur, 16 for 213 booths of the Adampur Assembly segment, 15 for 205 booths of Jalandhar Cantt, 13 rounds for 176 booths of Jalandhar North, 12 rounds for 163 booths of Jalandhar West and 12 rounds for 160 booths of Jalandhar Central.

Separate counting for ETPBS

The Deputy Commissioner said since postal ballots were less in numbers in the past, the ARO used to count them. But with the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) this time, the number is expected to rise.

“The ETBPS is electronic voting for service voters such as defence personnel who are far away. On May 3, the ETPBS had been sent to 1,847 service voters. Till Wednesday (today) morning, 812 ETPBS and 100 postal ballots have been received. Seeing more numbers, a special ARO has specially been appointed for the same,” he said.

The DC said there was hope that about 1,000 votes would be received via the ETBPS. Counting of these would be held before the counting of EVMs and a four-layer code would be scrutinised to ascertain the genuineness of the voter.

At four booths, only VVPATs to be counted

At four booths, only VVPATs will be counted. The DC said while the results of mock poll had to be cleared from the EVMs, at the four booths, this could not be done for the EVMs but he mock poll votes were removed from VVPATS. Hence on these, VVPATs have actual slips hence only VVPAT votes shall be recorded.

Nobody entered strongroom: DC

Responding to queries on BSP’s complaint of some men with laptops entering strongrooms on Tuesday, the DC today refuted all claims of any such activity. He claimed that they were people from the IT Department who came to set up equipment at his office and oversee the installation of the same.

The DC ruled out any foul play and said they did not go to the strongroom.

Special cards for Sports college students, staff

While exams of the fourth semester (BA) students of the Government Art and Sports College are scheduled for May 22, the district administration has issued special cards for them to enter the Sports College complex (near the BLR building). Students would be appearing for public administration, computer education and physical education exams scheduled for tomorrow at the college. Special entry cards will be issued to 68 persons (54 college students and 14 staff members) for the smooth conduct of the exam. Principal of the college Paramjit Kaur sought a special permission from the DC in thsi regard.

Kaur said: “The exam was announced by the GNDU and could not have been rescheduled. But the DC has okayed the entry. Hence, students will be able to appear tomorrow.”