All arrangements made for polls

Nellore: District Collector KVN Chakradhar Babu said all necessary arrangements were being made to ensure smooth conduct of Graduates and Teachers MLC elections in the district scheduled to be held on Monday.

He addressed the media at the Thikkana Bhavan located in the Collectorate on Friday. The Collector and District Election Officer said that March 12 and 13 will be declared as holidays for the local government offices and establishments that have been announced as distribution centres along with the polling stations in view of the elections. He said that during those two days the treasury offices, other government offices and institutions would function as usual.

The Collector said MCC teams and FST teams have been constituted in every mandal to strictly implement the model code of conduct in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Central Election Commission. There are 1,07,635 voters for Graduates MLC election and 8,165 voters for Teachers MLC election in the entire district, he said. Chakradhar Babu said that polling arrangements have been made in four revenue divisions of the district and a distribution centre, reception centre and a strong room have been set up in the respective divisions. Copies of voter rolls have been handed over to political parties and candidates, he added. A total of 169 polling stations are being set up in the district for Graduates' and Teachers' MLC elections, out of which 129 polling stations are for Graduates' constituency electin and 40 for Teachers' constituency. The Collector said 95 polling stations have been identified as critical polling stations in view of the past events.

He said 1,350 police personnel and 1,729 polling personnel have been deployed for conducting the elections. A postal ballot facility has also been set up for those on poll duty, which will remain in force till Saturday. So far, 301 people have exercised their franchise through postal ballots.

As part of the MCC, Rs 1,12,850 in cash, illicit liquor worth Rs 2,16,465, 16 litres of ID arrack, 12 kg of ganja and 1,000 litres of jaggery wash have been seized so far. Four vehicles worth Rs seven lakh have also been seized. Joint Collector R Kurmanath, Additional SPs Himavathi, Srinivasa Rao, district revenue officer P V Narayanamma and others were present.