VELLORE: As many as 16,949 employees from various government departments will be drafted into duty for the general elections to the Lok Sabha in Vellore district.

The district administration has been making all the necessary arrangements for holding the polls in a peaceful manner.

Talking to reporters here on Saturday, District Collector SA Raman said, “The district has a total of 3473 polling stations, with the addition of 28 new polling stations, at 1656 locations. As many as 16949 personnel will be pressed into election work.”

As many as 362 polling stations were identified vulnerable, he added. The district has a combined electorate of 30,68,778. Of them, men accounted for 15,07,187 while the figures of women are 15, 61,446 and transgenders-145.

The electronic voting machines (EVMs) have been kept on ready mode at the strong rooms in two places in the city.

As many as 8,660 ballot units, 4,660 control units and 4,442 VVPATs have been subjected to as many levels of checking before being safely locked. An additional logistics of 700 ballot units, 300 control units and 1500 VVPATs were received and were being subjected to first level checking, according to the Collector.

In order to check the flow of money and voter bribing, several special teams were constituted. Flying squads-39, static surveillance teams-39, video surveillance team-26, video viewing team-13, assistant expenditure observer team-13 and audit accounting team-13 were formed to carry out their specific assignments.

Earlier, addressing a training session for the flying squads and static surveillance teams, Raman asked them poll staff to be more vigilant on the ground to check the flow of money.

Factfile:

Polling stations	Locations	Poll personnel	Vulnerable	Voters	Men	Women	Transgender
3473	1656	16949	362	30,68,778	15,07,187	15,61,446	145