Titlagarh: Counting of votes for Titlagarh (69) and Kantabhanjhi (70) Assembly seats will be held at five different centres in Balangir district amidst tight security Thursday from 8 am, Titlagarh Sub-Collector Sudhakar Nayak told a press conference.
After the verification of EVM machines, vote counting in these two Assembly segments will start at DAV College at 8’ o clock in the morning. The administration has arranged a three-tier security at the counting centre.
Meanwhile, the administration has imposed Section 144 on the area of vote counting centres from Wednesday and restrictions on movement of vehicles on NH-59 from Thursday as it passes in front of the counting centre. The public has been advised to use the bypass road.
Explaining the vote counting process, the sub-Collector said there are 11 tables in the hall and the counting will be held in 28 rounds for the Titlagarh Assembly constituency. Likewise, for Kantabhanjhi Assembly constituency, there are seven tables in another hall and the counting will be held in 48 rounds. One hundred and fifty staff members will be engaged in the vote counting process for the two Assembly seats.
The counting of votes will start from 8 am and a counting assistant, a supervisor and a micro observer will be assigned for each table to ensure free and fair counting of votes, he said.
Before the counting, these officers will give necessary instructions to the staff engaged in vote counting. In the presence of candidates or their agents the EVMs will be brought out from the strong room before starting the counting.
He further said postal ballots will be counted first and after 30 minutes the counting of EVM votes will begin.
No electronic equipment or mobile phone will be allowed into the counting centre. After the verification of the EVM machines, the counting of VVPAT votes will be taken up in five booths as selected in the lottery system. Due to some reason if the EVM machines are found unclosed then also the counting of those VVPAT votes will be considered.
SDPO Manoj Behera, Titlagarh Tehasildar Swadip Toppe, Saintala Tehasildar Suman Dungdung and others were present at the press conference.
PNN
