'Vizag needs choppers for Naxal hit areas'

Visakhapatnam: Collector and Election Returning Officer K Bhaskar informed to the State Election Commissioner Gopalakrishna that the district needs more Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) and he urged him to supply them at the earliest.

The State Election Commissioner convened a video-conference with the collectors here on Monday. While responding to the Commissioner, the Collector said that the district has 320 sensitive and volunerable polling booths spread in Paderu and Araku Valley Assembly constituency. The polling booths at the borders of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha State and some of the village have no road connectivity also, he pointed out.

Shifting election material and staff to those booths become a tough task, the collector informed and asked the Commissioner to provide helicopters for shifting of the material and men to conduct the polling.

According to the intelligence reports, the polling would be impacted by Maoists in the polling booths spread on Andhra-Odisha Borders, the collector said and asked the Commissioner to provide additional CRPF and additional police forces for the smooth conduction of the polling.