More Time Requested
Representatives of recognised political parties have urged the election authorities and the district administration to give more time for providing feedback and suggestions on the location of polling stations. District Collector V. Palanikumar and District Revenue Officer S. Prabhakaran presided over an all-party meeting for finalising the draft list of the location of polling stations in respect of 16 Assembly constituencies in the district, especially in the wake of the realignment of constituencies as a fallout of the recent delimitation exercise. The administration had urged the political parties to give in their suggestions and feedback on the location of polling stations in writing before June 16. Mr. Palanikumar said that the Assembly constituencies with an electoral strength of 26.44 lakh had a total of 2,551 polling stations
The draft list of the polling stations had been finalised on the basis of the Election Commission norms which calls for a polling station for every 2 lm radius in rural areas and one polling station for a voter strength of 1,500 in urban areas. Representatives of the political parties said that the communication for the meeting was received only a few days ago and with hardly a few days left, it would not be possible for the political parties to get the field level feedback or suggestions on the location of the polling stations as per the draft list.
The parties sought time for them to get back to the grassroot level party functionaries to come back with feedback. The Collector said that the suggestion of the political parties seeking time would be conveyed to the Chief Electoral Officer and a decision would be taken in consultation with the CEO. Some of the political parties said that the electoral strength that was over 30 lakh had come down to 26.44 lakh and wanted the authorities to explain as to where all these voters had gone. The political parties also expressed apprehension over the possibility of en-masse deletion of voters’ names for want of their photographs for making the photo electoral rolls and photo voter identity cards.
