Udupi District Administration Gears up for Assembly Polls
Udupi: The district administration has geared up to hold the Assembly elections on May 12 in the district in a free and fair manner.
On Friday, de-mustering was held St Cecily School, Udupi, Bhandarkars College Kundapur and Manjunath Pai memorial College Karkala from where the electronic voting machines (EVMs), and VV PAT’s which are in use for the first time for the Karnataka elections, were sent to the respective polling booths.
Voting will begin at 7:00 am on Satuday and go on till 6:00 pm. Officials have requested the people to come in large numbers and cast their votes.
The officials gathered at the St Cecily School, Udupi, Bhandarkars College Kundapur and Manjunath Pai memorial College Karkala where the de-mustering centre has been set up, they collected all the materials from the officials before heading to their respective polling booths.
There are 9,93,415 voters in the district, which include 5,15,041 women, 4,78,350 men and 24 others who will be casting their votes in this assembly elections.
Webcasting will be done at 132 polling booths, while in Kundapur, a letter has been written to the EC for approving the indelible ink on the right hand as recently some gram panchayats in the Assembly constituency have undergone the by-elections. As many as 1,400 postal ballots have been received.
There are 303 service routes and the same number of KSRTC buses are pressed into service for carrying the polling officials to the mustering and de-mustering centres. There are 154 service voters, she added.
CRPC Section 144 will be clamped from 6:00 pm on Thursday, May 10 to 6:00 pm on May 13. Not more than five members are allowed to assemble. As many as 6,342 polling officials are on duty.
According to Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis, all the polling arrangements have been done and the required facilities ensured to the voters in as many as 1,103 polling booths across the district. The voters in the urban areas are facilitated with the App from the Election Commission which would make the voters aware about the queue at the respective polling booths. The volunteers would be regularly updated about the situation and the length of the queue. As many as 555 polling booths will have wheelchairs and 328 will have magnifying glasses for the visually impaired. As many as 274 micro observers have been deployed for service. Prohibitory orders for liquor is in place from 6:00 pm on Thursday, May 10 to 8:00 pm on Saturday, May 12. A token system will also be experimented at the Kundapur Assembly constituency.
