Webcasting to be done at 936 booths in Bathinda

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 17

A close watch will be kept on 936 polling booths through webcasting in the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency on May 19.

District Election Officer B Srinivasan said on Friday that in order to ensure free, fair and transparent elections, webcasting would be ensured at 936 booths out of the total 1,729 polling stations in the constituency.

Reiterating the firm commitment of the administration to ensure free, fair and transparent polls, he said elaborate arrangements would be made at every booth to ensure that the voters were able to cast their franchise freely.

For webcasting at these booths, web cameras, Wi-Fi routers and dedicated staff would be deployed for keeping a strict vigil on the polling process.

The move will ensure the live monitoring of the polling process at these booths through webcasting. The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), District Election Officer (DEO) and Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) will monitor the entire process of polling at these booths.

All polling parties will be dispatched from the PESCO Training Institute and Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) at Industrial Growth Centre to polling booths on Saturday.

According to the transport plan, buses, mini-buses and light vehicles have been roped in to ferry the polling parties to respective booths along with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

The entire polling staff, except for women, will leave for booths on Saturday and will stay there at night. The women polling staff members will arrive at the destined polling stations on May 19 in the morning.

On May 19, a mock poll will be conducted at 6 am, while the polling will start from 7 am. Election kits and an elaborate set of instructions are being given to the presiding officers.

A total of 2,198 Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines would be installed in 1,729 polling stations in the constituency. With the help of these machines, voters will be able to check whether they have cast their votes correctly or not. After casting a vote, a printing slip will be generated out of the machine.

The slip will show the candidate’s serial number and his party symbol. The print will remain in front of the voter for seven seconds. Thereafter, it will be dropped into a sealed box and maintain the secrecy of the vote.

The VVPAT is a method which provides voters an opportunity to give their feedback. It is a completely independent verification system and a printer-like machine is attached with every EVM.

Nine Assembly segments — Bathinda (Urban), Bathinda (Rural), Talwandi Sabo, Maur, Bucho, Mansa, Sardulgarh, Budhlada and Lambi — are part of the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency.

A total of 362 booths have been identified as hypersensitive in the constituency.