Bhubaneswar: As Puri’s Pipili has turned out to be a battleground for political parties on September 30, around 2000 police and 2290 polling personnel have been engaged for the smooth conduct of the by-election.
In a presser here, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Odisha, Sushil Kumar Lohani on Tuesday informed that a total of 1490 polling persons have been engaged in the election process. Besides 700 additional polling persons have also been appointed to ensure Covid appropriate behaviour during the election.
At least 201 booths out of 348 have been designated as critical booths. Additional arrangement of a micro observer or central paramilitary force or webcasting or video recording will be done at such booths to check any untoward incident, Lohani said.
A total of 423 vehicles have been hired for the polling personnel, police personnel, and paramilitary force. Around 2000 police personnel including three companies of BSF have been deployed for the by-election. There are 32 Police Mobile Parties. They are being led by Puri SP, assisted by three ASPs and seven DSPs.
Lohani further said that a total of 348 EVMs have been arranged for the by-election. Besides, a sufficient number of EVMs are in reserve. Eight engineers from ECIL Hyderabad have been engaged to attend to any technical issues with the EVMs. Spare EVMs have been provided to sector officers.
In order to ensure the safety of voters against Covid-19, each of them will be provided with hand gloves, masks, and sanitizers. Their temperature will be checked before they enter the booths. Anyone with high temperature or Covid symptoms will be sent back with a slip to return during the last one hour of the polling to cast their votes, he added.
Three complaints regarding violation of the Model Code of Conduct have been received till date. The complaints have been redressed after inquiry. While four cases have been booked for violating Covid protocols, Rs 5000 has been collected as a fine from political activists, the CEO further added.
Notably, the by-election to the Pipili assembly constituency was necessitated following the death of sitting MLA Pradeep Maharathy in October last year. Altogether 10 candidates are in the fray for the September 30 by-election for which the counting of votes will take place on October 3.
