NIZAMABAD: All arrangements are in place for the first phase of gram panchayat elections in the district tomorrow, said District Collector I.S. Sri Naresh.

Speaking after inspecting the arrangements at the Government Polytechnic College for Boys here on Friday, Mr. Naresh said the first phase of elections would be held in 235 villages of 14 mandals in Nizamabad division.

In 41 villages of the division, sarpanches were elected unanimously. Similarly, out of the total of 2,856 wards, members were elected unopposed from 972 wards - while elections would be held for the 1,878 wards. For sarpanch posts, 897 candidates and for ward elections 4,799 candidates are in the fray.

Polling would be held from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and results would be announced on the same day by Stage-II Polling Officer, he said.Adilabad staff reporter adds: Special police forces in adequate numbers have been positioned in the district. According to Adilabad Superintendent of Police Kripanand Tripathi Ujela, the 281 `extremist-affected' gram panchayats, mostly in Asifabad and Utnoor Revenue divisions , have been given full security cover.

He told reporters on Friday that armed forces comprising area domination parties, road opening parties, mobile parties and parties to check vehicles, were functional in the district.

Naxal threat

Mr. Ujela said extra care was being taken to ward off the threat of election disruption posed by extremists from adjoining Gadhchiroli district in Maharashtra. The extremists were reported to have come into Adilabad with only that purpose in mind.

In Asifabad and Utnoor revenue divisions, 894 candidates are in the fray for the post of sarpanch in 238 gram panchayats. Seven sarpanches in Asifabad and six in Utnoor have already been elected unanimously.

Similarly, 2,816 contestants are in the fray for 1,181 wards in Asifabad and 1,551 contestants would seek elections from 589 wards in Utnoor division. Elections were unanimous in 164 wards in Asifabad and 525 wards in Utnoor.

Karimnagar staff reporter adds: Polls in Manthani and Peddapalli revenue divisions would be held for 271 sarpanch and 22,250 ward members posts. A total of 7,639 candidates, including 1,207 for sarpanch and 6,432 for ward members are in the fray.

In the wake of encounter of the recent encounter in Nallamalla forests, the police are leaving no stone unturned to ensure peaceful polling in the district.

The police have constituted special forces in the district . Besides, interior police stations have also been fortified.

Nalgonda staff reporter adds: Elections will be held in 253 villages of Suryapet division on Saturday. Collector K. Vijayanand said that 7,500 poll personnel were appointed for 2,650 polling stations in 14 mandals.

20,18,075 voters are going to exercise their franchise. Fourteen special officers were deployed in the mandal headquarters to supervise the election process , he added.Since 88 hypersensitivevillages fall under Suryapet division, the police have made special arrangements to thwart any untoward incident.

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