Vijayawada, Feb 8 (UNI) All arrangements have been made to conduct the first phase of Gram Panchayat (GP) elections in Andhra Pradesh in 12 districts to elect 2,724 Gram Panchayat sarpanches and 20,157 ward members tomorrow.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Panchayat Raj principal secretary G K Dwevedi said that 29,732 polling stations had been set up of which 3,458 were identified as sensitive polling stations and 3,594 very sensitive polling stations.

Mr Dwivedi said that 18,608 big size ballot boxes, 8,503 medium size ballot boxes and 21,338 small size ballot boxes were being used for the elections.

He said that 1230 stage I returning officers, 3,249 stage II returning officers, 1432 assistant returning officers, 33,533 presiding officers and 4,392 other officials being deployed to conduct elections.

He said that 519 zonal officers, 1121 route officers and 3,047 micro officers were also deployed to participate in the election duty. All election material was being sent to the polling stations in the 12 districts he said. He said that 37,750 were participating in counting of votes to be taken up after completing polling tomorrow. Mr Dwivedi said that 525 village sarpanches and 12,185 ward members were elected unanimously.

'The Significance of the GP elections is that NOTA was included on the ballot paper for the first time,' he said, adding that the counting of votes would be taken up after the completion of the voting process. Gram Panchayat elections are being held in AP in four phases on February 9, 13, 17 and 21.

UNI DP SV 1853