Arunachal Pradesh to use choppers for transporting elections men and materials in several districts

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Itanagar: The election authorities in Arunachal Pradesh have decided to press helicopter services in several circles of the state for dropping of election personnel and materials if weather conditions are favourable in April.

Helicopter will be pressed into service for transportation of election personnel and materials to several remote circles in the state where road communication is not conducive, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pawan Kumar Sain told a press conference here on Monday.

During 2019 elections due to inclement weather conditions, chopper could not be used to transport men and materials to Vijanagar in Changlang district, Pipsorang and Tali in Kra Daadi district, Taksing (Upper Subansiri), Tuting and Singa in Upper Siang and Anelih in Dibang Valley district respectively.

 “There are altogether 228 polling stations in the state which could be reached only through foot march. Out of these, to reach 61 polling stations it requires two days foot march while, in seven other booths polling officials have to march for three days to reach their respective destinations,” Sain said.

He said, out of the total 2,226 polling booths in the state, 156 would be managed entirely by women, while 49 would be managed by youths and three especially by persons with disabilities (PWDs).

“There are a total of 204 polling booths are located in urban areas while as many as 2022 polling stations are in rural areas of the state,” the CEO said adding, the polling station No 2-Pumao Primary School under Longding assembly constituency has the highest number of voters with 1462, the Malogam temporary structure in Malogam village under Hayuliang constituency in Anjaw district has only one female voter.

Polling station No 18-Luguthang under Mukto constituency in Tawang district is the highest polling station in the state, located at an altitude of about 13,383 ft.

There are a total of 8,86,848 electorates in the state including, 4,49,050 female voters, 5,740 service voters and five third gender voters, the CEO said adding, a total of 46,144 voters are in the age group of 18-19 years, 4,257 in the age group of 85+ years and 232 in the age group of 100 plus.

The photo electoral roll coverage in the state as on date is cent per cent with equal percentage of Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) coverage.

Sain added that all necessary arrangements to conduct the elections have already been completed and training of all District Election Officers, Returning Officers, Assistant Returning Officers and various categories of nodal officers were completed by the CEO office.

Extensive awareness programme about use of EVM & VVPAT have been conducted in the districts covering all accessible polling stations including many foot-march locations, the CEO said adding, for service voters, electronically transmitted postal ballots system (ETPBS) would be used to facilitate hassle free voting.

First level checking of EVMs has been completed in the entire state in presence of representatives of national and state political parties over the course of past many months, the CEO added.

The notification for the simultaneous polls in the state would be issued on March 20 while the last date for filing nomination papers is March 27 and scrutiny of papers would be done on March 28. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is March 30.

The counting of votes for Assembly polls would be held on June 2 and for Lok Sabha polls on June 4 respectively. Arunachal Pradesh has two Lok Sabha seats and a 60-member assembly. The term of the present assembly is ending on June 2.

BJP won both Lok Sabha seats in the last elections. In the assembly, the BJP bagged 41 seats, JD(U) won seven seats, the NPP won five seats, the Congress secured four seats, the PPA won one seat and two Independent candidates also won.

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