Lucknow: A day ahead of counting of votes in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Election Commission officials have informed that postal ballot counting in the state will begin at 8 am and EVM vote-counting will begin at 8:30 am on Thursday. Election officials also said that counting in all 75 districts of the state will begin at 8 am.
Talking to ANI about it, Additional CEO BD Ram Tiwari said that all the necessary security arrangements have been made ahead of the counting. He said, "CAPF security arrangement outside strongroom has been made."
Ram Tiwari also said that as soon as postal ballot counting ends, Election Commission will begin with the last round of EVM counting. Further elaborating on the arrangements for the counting day, the election official said, "Covid protocols, including the use of hand gloves, sanitisers, masks, thermal scanners and adhering to social distancing norms, will be followed at the counting centres throughout the state."
Votes cast through postal ballots, including those by people with disabilities and senior citizens above 80 years, will be counted manually, while the votes of the service voters, ETPBS (Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System) will be done online. Apart from this, VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) slips of five machines will be counted in every assembly constituency.
Video and static cameras have been installed at all the counting centres. Additionally, Adequate AROs (Assistant Returning Officers) have been deployed in every assembly constituency for interruption-free counting, according to the Election Commission.
Security arrangements, including the three-layer security set-up has been made comprising of central police forces, PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) and the state police. A total of 250 companies of CAPFs (Central Armed Police Forces) have been provided to all the districts and commissionerates on March 10, the police said. According to officials, a CAPF company usually has around 70-80 personnel.
Of the 250, 36 companies have been earmarked for EVM security and 214 for maintaining law and order. Besides the CAPFs, 61 companies of PAC have also been provided to all districts, they said. Officials said 625 gazetted officers of UP Police, 1,807 inspectors; 9,598 sub-inspectors, 11,627 head constables and 48,649 constables have also been put on duty. The Model Code of Conduct came into force on January 8 after the announcement of polls in Uttar Pradesh by the Election Commission.
