DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

The Punjab chief electoral officer on Friday directed officials to complete arrangements for the Jalandhar West assembly bypoll to ensure for free, fair and peaceful conduct of the by-election. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sibin C directed the Jalandhar deputy commissioner to make arrangements for water coolers, fans, seating, toilets and sheds at polling stations for voters' convenience.

The bypoll, necessitated by the resignation of Sheetal Angural as AAP MLA, will be held on July 10 and the votes counted on July 13.

The CEO held a meeting on the bypoll with the deputy commissioner, police commissioner and the senior superintendent through videoconferencing. During the meeting, Sibin asked the officials concerned to ensure separate queues for the elderly and pregnant women and the availability of ramps and wheelchairs at each polling station for persons with

disabilities.

In case of long queues, chairs should be arranged and medical kits provided to the polling staff, he said.

He also ordered 100 per cent live webcasting of polling stations for real-time monitoring.

The CEO directed the commissioner and the senior superintendent of police to increase checkpoints and maintain round-the-clock vigil through CCTV cameras and vigilance to check smuggling of drugs, liquor, cash and freebies.

He asked the officials to strengthen security arrangements at sensitive polling booths, strong rooms and counting centres.

Sibin directed the officials to completely ban the entry of outsiders into the constituency 48 hours prior to the polls and resolve model code of conduct violation complaints in time. The CEO said 11 model polling booths would be set up. Apart from this, a pink polling booth would be set up at Mintgumri Guru Nanak Public School in Adarsh Nagar to be fully manned by women.

A green polling booth and youth polling booth operated by youngsters and a PwD polling booth for disabled persons will also be set up.

The constituency has 1.72 lakh voters, including 82,327 women, Sibin said. The total number of voters with disabilities is 873 -- 389 women and 484 men. The number of voters aged 18-19 in the constituency is 5,005, of which 2,282 are women and 2,723 men.
(editor@dailyworld.in)