The team of revenue officials from Kerameri mandal headed by Tahsildar V. Pramod made slow progress towards the designated polling station, a local primary school at Bolapatar village, on March 23, thanks to the bad road.
The eight kilometres to their destination took them about 30 minutes and the sun was no cause for cheer either as the election officials were set to create awareness among rural voters on the functioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines (VVPATs).
The officials, nevertheless, had reason to be happy given the enthusiasm with which the villagers agreed to watch a demonstration of the voting process. Similar was the case with voters in Anthapur village, seven kilometres ahead in the desolate territory on the Telangana-Maharashtra border.
Two-States
Voters in these villages assume significance as their habitations are among the dozen that are involved in the territorial dispute between the neighbouring states. The Telangana team became the only one to create awareness, as voters pointed out, though Maharashtra also sets up polling stations in this territory.
The villagers here hold electors’ photo identity cards issued by the authorities on either side. Given a chance, they can vote for Adilabad (ST) and Chandrapur Lok Sabha constituencies. The demonstrations took place in the polling station at Bolapatar and under an old tree in Anthapur.
Vote verified
“I now understand where to look for confirmation of my vote,” Madavi Bhimbai, a Kolam tribe voter from Bolapatar, told The Hindu after she went through the demonstrations of casting her vote and cross-checking it on the VVPAT screen. “I will again attend such programmes if the Maharashtra authorities also conduct it,” she asserted with a smile on her face.