The Bapatla administration has made all arrangements for the conduct of the elections in one Lok Sabha and six Assembly constituencies in the district, Collector P. Ranjith Basha has said, adding that more than 12.75 lakh voters would exercise their franchise.
In total, 1,510 polling stations will be set up in the district, the Collector said in an interview with The Hindu on February 20 (Tuesday).
Referring to the arrangements being made for the elections, Mr. Ranjith Basha said that the election staff have undergone training sessions and the remaining part of the training would be organised after announcement of the poll schedule.
“Training for the Booth-Level Officers, flying squads and others has been completed. Data related to all the election staff have been digitised. The digitisation process for micro-observers is in progress. The awareness campaign on EVM, which started a month ago, is also in progress as part of which the poll officials are organising demonstrations on EVMs at all 477 villages in the district. The voters are being sensitised in how to exercise their franchise,” said the Collector, adding that the awareness campaign on EVM has been completed in more than 250 villages.
Electoral roll
The final list of electoral rolls has been published and distributed among the political parties. The updates related to the new voters will continue until the poll notification is issued, he said.
The Collector said that the critical and vulnerable polling stations were being identified and the process would be completed by February-end. “Around 350 polling stations were identified as critical and vulnerable during the 2019 elections. Check-posts are also being set up at inter-district borders,” he said.
The district administration has set up six centres for distribution of polling material and a strong room has been set up in the district headquarters for storage of EVMs after the elections.
The Collector also said that the administration needed around 10,000 employees to conduct the elections.