Election Commision to issue vehicle pass to residents in RK Nagar

“We have already enumerated vehicles in the constituency through door-step verification. Through this enumeration drive, we have listed out as many as 10,200 two-wheelers and 5,070 four-wheelers as belonging to those who dwell here,” a senior official said.

“These passes will provide necessary access to the locals while the outsiders will have to approach the Returning Officer for necessary vehicle passes. Meanwhile, there will not be much of restrictions for vehicles passing through the constituency via arterial roads and main roads. They will be allowed to pass through after necessary frisking and checks. The vehicles which intend to access the residential areas will have to obtain necessary passes,” he said.

The EC had already restricted the door-to-door campaign beyond 5 pm. Their main agenda was to curtail the cash movement into the constituency, so that incidents such as large-scale bribing of voters did not recur.

“Last time, we had about 50 cameras installed in the entire constituency. This time the focus is on the residential areas and the EC is planning to fix at least 196 cameras. The measures to identify the locations are on, and the areas would be brought under surveillance soon before all parties began their electioneering,” the official said.

The Commission had also planned to cover all 256 Polling Booths under Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) devices. The devices had been ordered at the BHEL – Bengaluru and they expected to arrive soon. All new devices would be stocked with adequate reserve and would be replaced in case of technical snags. A training for the Election staff had been scheduled at Tondiarpet zone. Meanwhile, two more male candidates had filed their nominations in the constituency, taking the total tally of candidates to seven in the constituency.

Election Commission sources said that they would embark on a door-step verification regarding the objections raised by DMK functionary Madhavaram S Sudharsanam on 5,000 more voters who fall under categories of dead, shifted, double and multiple entries in RK Nagar constituency. “The verification will begin on Thursday and would be completed at the earliest,” the sources added. The DMK North Chennai District secretary recalled as to how the EC had deleted as many as 45,819 voters with respect to the objects earlier raised by the party. The DMK man claimed that they had come across the present objection in pursuant to the perusal of the cleansed electoral roll.