No poll duty for comorbid officials
BHUBANESWAR: Officials reluctant to go on election duty because of their comorbidities will have to be screened by a medical board at the district-level. The exercise will be conducted ahead of the November 3 bypolls to the two assembly constituencies — Tirtol and Balasore Sadar.
“Only those officials, who will be identified with comorbidities by the medical board, will be exempted from poll duty. New polling personnel will be assigned in their places,” state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) SK Lohani said. He added, “We are committed to conducting a Covid-safe election as per the mandate of the Election Commission of India. Top priority is being given to the safety of the poll officials and voters as well. The district collectors have also been asked to take care of all the personnel deployed for byelection duty.”
The CEO reviewed the safety precautions with the district collectors of Balasore and Jagatsinghpur through video-conference on Thursday.
Officials said while the number of polling booths has been increased with the objective of reducing crowds in one place, there has also been around a 150% increase in the number of poll officials, to be engaged for the safe conduct of the byelections. The number of voters in a particular polling booth has been brought down from 1,500 to 1,000 to prevent overcrowding.
The officials added that the number of polling booths has been increased to 346 from 198 in Balasore Sadar, while it has has been increased from 265 to 373 in Tirtol.
Though 1,000 to 1,200 polling personnel are engaged in one assembly constituency under normal circumstances, about 2,768 polling personnel (including the reserve party) have been pressed into service for Balasore Sadar, while 2,984 polling personnel have been called for Tirtol. Besides the polling personnel, two more health workers, including ASHA, will be deployed outside each polling booth.