ON THE MOVE: Police personnel assigned to various polling booths preparing to leave for their respective destinations at the police stadium in Visakhapatnam on Friday. --- Photo: K.R. Deepak

Srikakulam: Arrangements are in place for elections to 38 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies and 620-odd Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies in the district, said Collector and Election Officer V.N.Vishnu, on Friday, adding that establishing identity is a must while claiming ones vote at the polling station. Identity could be established through one of the fifteen items, which included ration card, Mr.Vishnu added. He pointed out that in the district 97 per cent of the families had been issued ration cards, this included one-lakh new ration cards and hence there would be no difficulty in establishing identity.

Deploying videographers

On deploying videographers at problematic polling stations, Mr.Vishnu said that problematic polling stations had been identified but there was no need to send videographers. However the Returning Officers and Zonal Officers would have videographers and depending on requirements, they would be used.

Mr.Vishnu who had inspected all the polling stations and counting centres said that ballot boxes, which had been kept unused for the last several years, have been overhauled and are ready for use. Adequate number of boxes is available. Sufficient number of boxes is also kept as reserve, Mr.Vishnu added. There are 1978 polling stations in the district to enable more than 15 lakh voters to exercise their franchise on July 2.

Rallies, processions, padayatras and door-to-door campaigns marked the last day of electioneering for local body elections slated to take place on July 2. Minister for Revenue and Relief and Marketing Minister Botsa Satyanarayan and Congress MLA were seen participating in rallies and paadayatras in the streets. Similarly, TDP leaders, including MP Kinjarapu Yerrannanidu, district unit party president Tammineni Sitaram and TDP MLAs were also seen in similar action. Intermittent rains in all parts of the district failed to dampen the enthusiasm of party workers.

Problems of rebels

Congress had been facing the problems of rebels in a number of places and senior leaders had been making a last ditch effort to sort out the issue. Many TDP leaders had joined the Congress on the eve of elections and at a number of places.

Both the Congress and the TDP are confident of doing well in the elections. The TDP leaders asserted that they would retain the ZP seat, if election would be `free and fair'.

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