RAMANATHAPURAM
Out of ₹ 1.12 crore cash seized from 94 incidents by the flying squads across different assembly constituencies, close to ₹ 67.75 lakh was returned after proper verification, said District Election Officer and Collector Dinesh Ponraj Oliver here on Tuesday.
Speaking at a review meeting on poll preparedness and arrangements done in view of the general elections to the Legislative Assembly on April 6, where observers participated, he said that there were 1,647 polling stations in the district and 228 among them in 80 locations were identified as vulnerable or critical due to various factors.
Hence, adequate strength would be deployed to such vulnerable polling stations, Mr Dinesh said and added that the first of the three-phase training for the 8,305 staff had been completed. The second training programme would be held on March 25 and the last one would be conducted on April 5.
The Observers - Sorabh Babu (Ramanathaputam and Mudukalathur), Wezope Kenye (Paramakudi), Anurag Verma (Tiruvadanai), Anoop A Shetty (Police Observer) and Saurabh Dubey (Expenditure Observer) for Paramakudi and Tiruvadanai ACs, Superintendent of Police E Karthik among others participated.
The observers stressed the need for more attention on the vulnerable polling stations.
The officials said that with the polling duration extended by an hour more (till 7 p.m.), the staff had to be adequately prepared to bring them safely to the respective counting centres.