Visakhapatnam gears up for Assembly and Lok Sabha elections

With less than 24 hours to go to the much-awaited Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Visakhapatnam, the concerned authorities have been functioning in top gear to set the stage for the big day. Personnel at several polling units across the district have been on a war footing to complete the arrangements for the polls slated to take place on Thursday, 11 April.

Reportedly, election equipment and security personnel have been deployed from Andhra University to 9 constituencies in Visakhapatnam. The polling equipment and personnel for the remaining six Assembly constituencies will be deployed the mandals of from Nakkapalli, Chodavaram, Madugula, Narsipatnam, Araku, and Paderu.

As many as 4052 polling stations have been set up to conduct elections in Visakhapatnam district. It may be noted that 1667 polling booths have been identified as ‘critical’ ones. A civil staff of close to 40,000 personnel, including micro observers, security teams, videographers, webcasting squads, and others will be deployed at the polling centres. Also, 988 vehicles have been kept in readiness to facilitate the transport of the election personnel on Thursday.

Arrangements are also being made to provide breakfast and lunch for the polling personnel. Emergency medicines, ORS, drinking water packets, buttermilk, fruits would also be catered to those entrusted with the election duty.

Visakhapatnam District Collector K Bhaskar and Joint Collector J Srujana have been closely monitoring the arrangements being made at the polling stations in the district.