In a first, postal votes sorted out at Centralised Sorting Facilitation Centre
Based on the instructions, the Kalaiyarangam wedding hall near Central bus stand was chosen and the postal votes were brought to the centre and they were segregated based on the revenue district
Tiruchy Collector and Returning Officer Pradeep Kumar overseeing the sorting operations in Tiruchy on Wednesday
TIRUCHY: The sorting of the postal votes from across all the 38 revenue districts were made at the first of its kind Centralised Sorting Facilitation Centre at Tiruchy and they were handed over to the liaison officers of respective returning officers and they were transported to the districts with tight security on Wednesday.
The Election Commission has suggested establishing the state level Centralised Sorting Facilitation Centre for postal votes to avoid inconvenience for the election officials in reaching the votes to the respective revenue district and the Lok Sabha constituency thereafter. Subsequently, Tiruchy district was selected in Tamil Nadu for being the geographic centre of the state and the district collector and Returning Officer M Pradeep Kumar was asked to coordinate the process.
Based on the instructions, the Kalaiyarangam wedding hall near Central bus stand was chosen and the postal votes were brought to the centre and they were segregated based on the revenue district. Thus, the postal votes that were sorted out, were handed over to the liaison officers of the respective returning officers. “They were transported to the respective revenue district with tight security,” Pradeep Kumar told reporters.
He further said that as many as 8,400 postal voters were registered for Tiruchy Lok Sabha segment. While as many as 2,547 polling booths have been established in the segment and among them, as many as 127 booths are found to be sensitive and monitoring would be intensified in these booths and micro observers have been appointed to monitor the sensitive booths.
44,800 polling stations under CCTVs: CEO
Meanwhile, Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu Satyabrata Sahoo on Wednesday said that 44,800 out of 68,321 polling stations in Tamil Nadu would be monitored through web cameras. “Web cameras are being installed in 44,800 polling stations in the state, which has a total of 68,321 polling stations in 39 constituencies. It will be completed this evening and a test run will take place and 65% of the polling booths in each constituency will be monitored by a web camera system,” Sahoo told media persons.
On postal votes, Sahoo said the officials on election duty can vote postal votes till 6 pm on April 18. Those who are unable to vote at the training centres can send their votes through a register post to the Returning Officer of the respective constituency. “The Election Officers will take necessary measures to dispatch the postal votes to the counting centres by June 3,” he said.
