Manipur voters to be photographed during polls

Imphal, Jan 18 (ANI): Voters coming to cast their franchise would be photographed by polling officers during assembly polls as per new directives by the Election Commission, in Manipur.

"It is the Commission's directive that in the polling stations, during the polls, each voter will be photographed by the polling officers. We are now going to give them hand held cameras. And these polling officers will take photographs of the voters with his inked finger," said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P. C. Lawmkunga.

"These photographs will be checked with the photographs, which we have in the data bank. If they are identical then there will be no further action. But if they are not then it is an impersonation or bogus. The commission will decide whether this polling booth will have to be taken for repelling the next day or after that," he added.

Lawmkunga also said that the Election Commission was making arrangements with the interior ministry to provide them with helicopter services for accessing the hilly areas in the state where normal transport by car is difficult.We have requested the Commission to request the Home Ministry to give us helicopter services for hill areas, outlying areas where there are no proper routes. So they have agreed that they will give us three helicopters to leave polling personnel and EVMs from the polling booths, so that they get delivered properly in the counting centers," he said.

Lawmkunga also said that they would be rationalising every polling booth in the state so that they don't exceed the number of voters required in each area as per the Election Commission's directives.

"Our electorate as per the latest revision is 17,40,819 for the entire state. But the number of voters from polling station to polling station are different. In some polling stations there are more and in some there are less. But in any case, the Election Commission of India has directed there cannot be more than 1200 voters per polling station. That is why we have rationalised all our polling stations just to ensure that no polling station has more than 1200 voters, so that people will not have to come from far off places," said Lawmkunga.

He further said that they are looking into the security arrangements during the polling and are taking the best possible arrangements to prevent any untoward incident from happening.

Among the total number of 2,357 polling stations in the state, 875 has been categorised as hyper sensitive, 1,325 are sensitive and 160 polling stations are normal.

Manipur is one of the five Indian states, which are undergoing assembly polls during January 28 and March 03.The results of the polls will be declared on March 06. (ANI)