COVID-19: Election Commission Of India Makes Special Arrangements To Ensure Safe Voting For Odisha Bypolls

Bhubaneswar: In view of the ongoing pandemic, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has made elaborate arrangements to ensure safe voting for bypolls in two assembly constituencies of Odisha –Balasore and Tirtol on Tuesday (November 3), informed Chief Electoral Officer, Odisha, Sushil Kumar Lohani. A total of 4,67,579 lakh voters (2,37,284 in Tirtol and 2,30,297 in Balasore) are eligible to cast their vote in both constituencies. In view of COVID-19, the number of voters in polling booths has been restricted to 1,000 to reduce the gathering, for that the number of booths in Tirtol constituency has increased from 265 to 373 and in Balasore from 198 to 347.

Also Read: COVID-19: Centre Advises States, UTs To Gear Up ‘Testing, Tracking And Treatment’ Strategy During Festivities

All booths have been sanitised frequently prior to the bypolls and they will also be sanitised on the day of polling, the provision for handwashing and sanitising for the voters have been made at all the booths, said the Chief Electoral Officer. All the polling officers deployed on duty have been screened and only healthy personnel have been roped in duty. They all have been provided with COVID kit including a face mask, face shield, sanitiser, gloves, PPE kit, etc, he added.

The thermal screening will be conducted for all the voters at all the polling booths, any voter found to have a higher temperature or having any symptoms will be segregated and, provided with a voting token and will be allowed to vote in the last hour.
Each voter will be given one glove to put on the right hand to perform all the polling process using the same hand.

About 3,500 polling personnel, 800 ASHA workers, and an equal number of volunteers have been engaged for polling duty. Around 90 platoons of the police force, 250 officers and six companies of CAPF have been deployed, said Mr Lohani.

Also Read: WHO Lauds Odisha Government For Efficient COVID-19 Management, Despite Cyclone Amphan, Influx Of Migrants

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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