GUWAHATI: Election authorities in Assam will be creating over 6,000 additional polling booths for the 2021 assembly election to prevent overcrowding and to adhere to all Covid-19 protocols.
As per norms, a polling station is set up for 1,000 voters. However, considering the pandemic situation, the office of the chief electoral officer of Assam has received instructions from the Election Commission of India to come up with arrangements of auxiliary polling stations as precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus and avoid overcrowding.
“A total of 6,452 auxiliary polling stations are likely to be created in view of the Covid-19,” Assam chief electoral officer, Nitin Khade, said on Monday.
Sources in the election department said ECI has already included Assam into the states going into polls and preparedness has already started. “The auxiliary polling stations need to be earmarked in the same premises if the number of voters in a polling station is more than 1,000. However, the matter of respite is that such auxiliary polling stations will preferably come up in the same premises of the polling stations where their names are enlisted,” the source added.
A plan is being worked out to increase the number of polling stations and considering the distribution of voters in the existing 28,205 polling booths, the number of auxiliary stations across districts will be 6,542. In Assam, 62 new polling stations have already been created.
Meanwhile, special campaign drives will be launched by the election authorities in Assam to enrol maximum number of genuine voters before the final electoral rolls are prepared. With youngsters constituting the biggest chunk of voters, efforts are being made to make entry of all eligible voters
who may have been left out of the draft electoral rolls.
Application for registration, deletion of names from electoral rolls, correction of entries and transposition of names from one polling station to another in the same constituency can be submitted online through www.ceoassam.in and www.nvsp.in.