First randomisation of polling staff done at Kapurthala

Ashok Kaura

Kapurthala, April 30

As many as 5,408 employees were chosen by the administration for polling duty for the General Election across the district in the first randomisation led by Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer Amit Kumar Panchal. The exercise was undertaken today at the District Administrative Complex here.

Giving details, the Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer Amit Kumar Panchal said that a total of 5,408 poll officials will be randomised. The remaining officials will be deployed as polling staff for 791 polling stations in the district encompassing the four assembly segments, namely, Kapurthala, Sultanpur Lodhi, Bholath and Phagwara. Panchal said that each polling station will have a presiding officer, an assistant presiding officer besides two polling officials.

The randomisation was carried out through Next Gen DISE software, a web-based application for data entry of polling staff.

DC Panchal said that Kapurthala district has a total of 6,20,819 voters including 1,46,313 in Kapurthala, 1,48,177 in Sultanpur Lodhi, 1,33,787 in Bholath and 1,92,545 in Phagwara segments. He said that the randomisation of EVMs would be done on May 2 while the first training of polling officials has been scheduled for May 5. The training will be carried out in two shifts. The second training session will take place on May 25.

The DC said that the district administration is fully geared up for the smooth conduct of elections. He said that as many as 20 model polling stations would be set up besides four pink polling stations. Similarly, one dedicated polling station for the youth is being set up in Kapurthala as well as four polling stations for PwD (Persons with Disabilities) voters one in each assembly segment.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Shikha Bhagat, Election Tehsildar Manjit Kaur, District Informatics Officer Sanjeev Kumar, Election Kanungo Pooja Kakkar and other officials were also present during the randomisation.

Cong holds first election meeting in Phagwara

Phagwara: The Congress held its first election meeting in Phagwara. The meeting was held as part of campaigning to wrest the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat. Hundreds of Congress activists welcomed the party’s candidate Yamini Gomar, who along with Phagwara MLA Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, was present at a resort near Grain Mandi, Phagwara. Dhaliwal and Gomar appealed to workers to launch a united election campaign to ensure win in the General Election with a thumping majority. They criticised the ‘wrong and anti-people policies’ of the BJP and AAP. Later, they visited temples and gurdwaras to pay obeisance.