SAFA App helps voters locate polling booths

Berhampur: The SAFA App launched by the Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) earlier and a new option added by the Ganjam district administration helped voters in finding their respective polling booths smoothly in the BeMC elections on Thursday.

As the number of wards has increased this time from 40 to 42 and ward delimitation has been done, voters in general are facing difficulty in finding their booths. Voters in the BeMC area know their booth location from the SAFA app after downloading it in their smartphones from Google Play Store.

Earlier, the BeMC provided different civic services in urban areas, including garbage pickup requests, booking of Kalyan Mandap, through the app. However, the district administration included the 'Know your booth' option in the SAFA app.

Voters can enter their voter ID or the Electors Photo Identification Card (EPIC) number to know their polling booth. There is also the option of getting the Google map location and travel route through the app. Ward-wise booths can also be accessed through the app.

There are 2.55 lakh voters, including over 1.27 lakh women in the BeMC. They can cast votes in 250 polling booths to elect the new mayor and 42 corporators. Among them, several electors are first-time voters.

About 230 cadets of NCC, Scouts and volunteers of different high schools in Berhampur helped physically-challenged and visually-impaired persons to vote. The cadets were deployed in all booths and did a commendable job, voters opined.