Malkangiri: Polling teams manning voting booths in the Swabhiman area (cut-off area) here were airlifted in an Indian Air Force helicopter Wednesday as elections for the two Assembly seats in this district in Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency is scheduled for Thursday.
The district administration has completed all preparations for conducting elections in these two Assembly seats Wednesday.
Around 54 polling officials, six for each booth, were airlifted by helicopter. The poll parties are housed at the Jodamba police camp for the night. They will leave for their booths Thursday morning.
Security has been beefed up in the area as 126 booths have been declared hyper sensitive due to the Maoist menace. Intelligence is on alert and BSF, IRBN, SOG and DVF troopers have been deployed in the area.
The borders of the district have been sealed after a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh claimed the lives of five persons including a BJP legislator.
Security forces are carrying out combing operations in Maoist areas of the district jointly with their counterparts of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, SP Jagmohan Meena said.
‘Swabhiman’ is the name given by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to the 151 villages in the cut-off area while inaugurating the Gurupriya Bridge in the Chitrakonda block of Malkangiri district July 26.
The area is surrounded by water on three sides after the construction of reservoirs at Macchkund in the 1960s and Balimela in the 1980s. There is no other means to reach the villages except boats.
The district has Malkangiri and Chitrakonda Assembly seats which fall in the Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency. Of the nine booths in the Swabhiman area five are in the Chitrakonda Assembly seat. These booths are located in Andrapali, Jantri, Dhuliput, Jodamba and Panasput panchayats.
Arrangements have been made to ferry polling teams in motorboats through the reservoirs to their booths. The polling parties going to the townships and adjoining villages also left for their booths Wednesday.
The polling will be held from 7 am till 6 pm, and around 4,20,358 voters will vote in these two Assembly seats.
Malkangiri has 2,31,444 voters. Of this, 2,314 are new and 3,891 are differently–abled. Chitrakonda has 1,88,914 voters, of which 2,174 are new and 1,696 differently-abled.
The district administration has arranged buses and other vehicles instead of trucks to ferry polling personnel. A total of 3,240 polling personnel have been deployed in the district while 418 have been kept in reserve.
Around 800 vehicles have been engaged to ensure smooth conduct of elections.
The administration has also arranged 240 auto-rickshaws to ferry senior citizens and disabled voters to polling booths.
Six motorboats have been kept ready to ferry police personnel to polling booths on the other side of the Chitrakonda reservoir. Two pink booths have been arranged exclusively for women voters.
PNN
