3,896 police personnel will be engaged for the poll work

Collector Rajagopal Sunkara told reporters at the Erode District Collectorate on Monday that  a total of 3,896 police personnel will be engaged for the poll work in Erode district. Along with 1,571 local constables, 2,325 Central force personnel will be engaged in security work.

Vigilance has been intensified in a total of 12 check posts including 5 state booths in the district. 191 vulnerable polling booths have been detected in the district.

Out of 2,222 polling booths set up in Erode district, 1,476 polling booths will be monitored through webcams. Election work including sending of voting machines to polling booths will be done by 198 zonal committees.

Vigilance will be intensified for 72 hours before vote registration. 48 hours before the stay of persons of other areas in hostels, gatherings in community halls and sending large number of text messages are prohibited.

Party members who have come from other districts and constituencies for party work should not be in the constituency. Hostels will be checked to ensure that out-of-district residents have left.

118 complaints have been received and action taken. Cash and goods worth Rs.5.37 crore have been seized. Of this, Rs.2.96 crores have been returned to the owners.

The remaining balance is Rs.2.41 crore.

Vehicles should not come within 100 meters of the polling station on the day of polling.

There should be no vote gathering activities of political parties. Polling officials have been instructed to give preference to differently-abled persons and senior citizens to assist them in casting their votes.

About 3,000 people above 85 years of age and differently abled have received '12 D' form and out of that about 2,800 have cast their votes from home. Those who do not vote by submitting 'Form 12D' will not be able to vote even if they go to the polling booths.

A total of 13,000 government employees are engaged in election work in the district.

Returning Officers have been instructed to register mock votes at polling booths at 5.30 am on the day of polling.

 If agents do not come to the polling station at that time then officials can wait up to 15 minutes. After that the polling officer has been instructed to conduct the sample vote registration.

As far as 15 polling booths are concerned in the hilly areas, arrangements have been made for complete video recording of the vote recording as there is no possibility of online communication.

Erode district has 120 polling booths in hilly areas. In these polling booths arrangements have been made to engage workers in the hilly areas for polling. He said that 90 percent of voter information slips (booth slips) have been distributed in the district.