CHINTOOR (ASR Dist.)
Tribes of Godavari Valley queued up outside polling booths to exercise their franchise in Chintoor Agency in Alluri Sitarama Raju (ASR) district on Monday.
The first hour of polling was marred by technical glitches in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
Chintoor Agency, nestled on the tri-State borders of Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, is affected by Left-Wing Extremism (LWE).
Scores of tribes — Koyas along the Sabari and Godavari rivers, Konda Reddis of Papikonda Hills and Murias who migrated from Chhattisgarh — were seen in the queues waiting to exercise their franchise at their respective polling booths.
The Murias make it a point to exercise their franchise as their claim on the local resources gains strength. Most of the tribal voters reach the polling booths on foot.
Meanwhile, paramilitary forces have been deployed along the Chintoor-Sukma border on the Sabari riverfront and the Chintoor-Malkangiri border on the Sileru riverfront as polling is in progress for the Legislative Assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
Technical glitches
In the administrative headquarters of Chintoor, many EVMs were found dysfunctional in polling booths 347 and 348. A mock poll was held after 8 a.m. By 11 a.m., the polling was in progress without any untoward incident on the tri-State borders. In Vaddigudem polling booth in V.R.Puram mandal, two EVMs failed.
