1,200 voters per polling booth to be allowed in Punjab polls

Chandigarh, September 14

Punjab Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju on Tuesday said a maximum of 1,200 voters per polling booth will be allowed in the upcoming state assembly polls due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Earlier, 1,400 voters per polling booth were allowed.

With the reduction in the limit of voters, the polling booths will increase from 23,211 to 24,689, according to an official statement.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has given its concurrence to arrange additional electronic voting machines required for the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab, the CEO said.

He said, 10,500 controlling units (CU) and 21,100 VVPATs are being transported from different districts of Madhya Pradesh to various districts of Punjab.

Raju said with the addition of these machines, Punjab will have 45,316 ballot units (BU), 34,942 CU, and 37,576 VVPAT (Voter verifiable paper audit trail) machines.

The CEO asserted the EVMs are being transported while duly adopting the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) set by the ECI.

Raju said district-wise nodal officers are picking up the machines from Madhya Pradesh under tight security arrangements.

The EVMs and VVPAT have reached Punjab’s 10 districts including Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Kapurthala, Jalandhar and Ludhiana and these machines will reach the rest of the districts within two days, the CEO said.

He said the first level checking of these machines will be undertaken in the presence of representatives of recognised national and state political parties.

He also said a meeting with the state government officials was held to procure sanitisers and masks for the upcoming elections.

Punjab Assembly polls are due early next year. —PTI