Chennai: About 190 companies of the Central Armed Police Force have been deployed for the polling process in 39 Lok Sabha constituencies spread across Tamil Nadu, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said on Thursday.
A total of 6.23 crore voters, including 3.06 crore men, 3.17 crore women and 8,467 third gender, will decide the fate of 950 contestants, including 76 women candidates, on April 19 in the state.
The first time voters (18 -19 years) alone account for 10.92 lakh. While persons with disability (PwD) comprise of 4.61 lakh of the total electorate, while 6.14 lakh are aged 85 years and above, the CEO said.
"We are fully prepared to conduct the polling in a free and fair manner from 7 am to 6 pm on Friday. Arrangements have been made by the Election Commission to provide free transportation to the PwD and senior citizens in case they require transportation," Sahoo told reporters here.
Senior citizens and PwD needing the free "pick up and drop" facility could book the service through Saksham app or make a call to: 1950. Tokens would be issued from the last voter standing in the queue at 6 pm and facilitate them to exercise their franchise, he added.
The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4. There are as many as 68,321 polling stations and 39 counting centres. Arrangements have been to webcast polling from 44,801 (65 percent) stations.
A total of 3.32 lakh polling personnel have been involved in the exercise and 15 companies of CRPF would be deployed at counting centres in addition to the local police personnel, Sahoo said.
"About 8,050 vulnerable polling stations besides 181 critical polling stations have been identified. In addition, we have sought the deployment of 3,500 personnel from the Andhra Pradesh Armed Police force and 4,500 persons from the Home Guards of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Totally 1.3 lakh police personnel would be deployed for poll related activities," the CEO explained.
On the number of EVMs used for the polls, he said the Election Commission has moved 1,58,568 Ballot Units, 81,157 Control Units and 86,858 VVPATs.
About 325 Ballot Units, 326 Control Units and 346 VVPATs would be used for the by-election in the Vilavancode assembly constituency in Kanyakumari district.
Voters could locate their polling stations on https://electoralsearch.eci.gov.in/pollingstation. All eligible voters whose names figure in the electoral rolls should carry any one of the following documents: Voter ID Card, Aadhaar Card, Pan Card, Unique Disability ID, Service Identity Card, Passbook Issued by Bank, MGNREGA Job Card, Health Insurance, Driving Licence, Passport, Smart Card, Pension Document and Official Identity Card.
As on April 17, the election officials have seized cash worth Rs 173.85 crore, liquor valued at Rs 6.67 crore, drugs/narcotics worth Rs 1.13 crore, precious metal: Rs 1,083.77 crore and other items/freebies for Rs 35.78 crore, thus totally to Rs 1,301.22 crore, he said.
