History-sheeters rounded up ahead of Panaji bypoll

PANAJI: After a bottle was allegedly thrown at BJP candidate Sidharth Kuncalienker, North Goa collector R Menaka, who is the returning officer for the Panaji bypoll, has issued orders to the Old Goa and Panaji police stations to detain 13 history sheeters.
Of the 13 proclaimed history-sheeters, seven have already been rounded up by the police, Menaka said here on Saturday.
Menaka said that the directions were issued to ensure that the voting process goes off without a hitch on Sunday. “There were some candidates who met us and informed that there was an apprehension on the security issues. So we had conducted a security review. Instructions have been given to the police to round up history-sheeters to maintain peace in the constituency,” Menaka said.
She added that seven history-sheeters had already been rounded up in Panaji, with Goa Police expected to continue the process so that no “untoward incident” is reported on polling day.
As per the list, there are seven history-sheeters in Panaji police station jurisdiction, and six under Old Goa station jurisdiction.
Panaji will vote in the assembly bypoll as it looks to elect the successor of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who passed away after a long battle with cancer. Kuncalienker, the former Panaji MLA and Atanasio Monserrate, a former minister, are locked in a close battle, with Goa Suraksha Manch president Subhash Velingkar and Aam Aadmi Party’s Valmiki Naik also in the fray.
“The total number of voters in Panaji is 22,482 voters, with 10,697 male voters and 11,785 female voters,” said Menaka while addressing the press.
Panaji has 30 polling stations and 38 polling teams, of which eight teams are kept on standby. The polling teams have received two rounds of training and after the EVMs were inspected, the teams have been dispatched to their respective polling booths, Menaka said.
As an additional measure to ensure fair polling, four sector officers, two flying squads and four static surveillance teams have been deployed across the city to monitor any violations of the model code of conduct. This is besides the six nakabandi points in the city. Over and above this, there are five general observers from the Election Commission (EC) along with one expenditure observer.
“On the day of the poll, we will be having three engineers from EC and five trouble shooters to address any issues with EVM machines,” Menaka said.
She informed reporters that special emphasis has been laid to ensure that the 115 specially challenged voters in the capital find it easy to cast their vote.
“We have conducted two exclusive training sessions for persons with disabilities (PwD). We expect that participation of PwD voters in the voting process will be higher. There will be two volunteers in each polling station to help Pwd voters,” Menaka said.
Polling station seven at Gomantak Sahitya Sevak hall, Menezes Braganza building will be manned exclusively by PwD officials. Since indelible ink from the parliamentary polls may have not faded away from voters’ fingers, the ink will be applied on the left hand ring finger for the bypoll.