The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : 3.44 lakh first-timers set to vote

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Friday, Apr 10, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

3.44 lakh first-timers set to vote

Special Correspondent

Number of voters in Hyderabad and RR district swells to 56,40,041

RR district has 24, 51,178 voters now with the addition of 1.78 lakh new voters
Hyderabad has 31, 70,819 voters with 1, 65,821 new additions

HYDERABAD: The total number of voters in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has swelled to 56,40,041 in both Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts with the inclusion of 3,44,158 ‘new’ voters registered between January 22 and March 30 this year.

Ranga Reddy district has 24, 51,178 voters now with the addition of 1.78 lakh new voters while Hyderabad has 31, 70,819 with 1, 65,821 new additions. There is also an increase in the percentage of images in the electoral rolls overall by 2.25 per cent with 48, 21,935 photos available.

In R.R. District, 20, 65,224 electors have images (84.25 per cent) and in Hyderabad 27, 56,711 electors have images (86.94 per cent), said Additional Chief Electoral Officer and GHMC Commissioner S.P. Singh under whose jurisdiction, 23 Assembly and five Parliament constituencies go to polls on April 16th. t a press conference on Thursday, Mr. Singh said elaborate arrangements have been made to ensure voters were able to exercise their franchise in a free and fair manner. “We have taken measures to take up corrections of Electoral Photo Identity Cards (Epics) till April 15 at the notified centres,” he said. He pointed out that 16, 74,138 Epics were generated and distributed since February with 11, 61,130 cards in R.R. district and 4, 75,144 in Hyderabad districts. This was a “huge effort by any standard,” he maintained. There will be a total of 3,174 polling stations in addition to 70 auxiliary stations wherever the voters exceed more than 1,500 in a polling station.

About 1,850 polling stations in Hyderabad have been identified as “sensitive” and special deployment of police would be ensured in these centres. Election Commission appointed 560 ‘micro observers’ who would be manning 550 of the 1,365 buildings having polling stations and in 500 other polling stations video cameras and digital cameras would be used for effective supervision of election process, he explained. Mr. Singh also urged electors to make use of the SMS facility to locate the precise polling station from where his or her vote can be cast by sending message to 5667 by typing CEO<space>EPIC number of the voter or HNO<space>House number as per municipal records. The same can be checked by logging onto www.ghmc.gov.in, www.ceoandhra.nic.in & www.pollingbooth.in.

He revealed that 20,000 polling personnel have applied for using the postal ballot facility. The District Election Officer & Special Commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu and R.R. Reddy Collector Dana Kishore were also present.

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