All preparations completed for peaceful, smooth counting of votes, CEO

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has taken massive security arrangements to conduct counting of polled votes in free and fair manner in all 60 counting halls spreading in 19 locations across Tripura, said CEO, Tripura, Puneet Agarwal.

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Tripura, Puneet Agarwal along with Returning Officer (RO) of West Tripura LS seat and DM(West) Dr Vishal Kumar on Wednesday reviewed the entire preparations for 14 counting halls at Umakanta Academy in Agartala, where polled votes would be counted on June 4th next along with other locations of the state for both West Tripura and East Tripura parliamentary constituencies.

Later, speaking with media persons, Agarwal said that  after peaceful voting, whereas approximately 81.5% voters of the state cast their votes, the counting of polled votes would be held on June 4th across the country and the poll panel at present are not leaving any stone unturned for peaceful and smooth counting of votes.

He said a massive security arrangement was made to guard all polled EVMs in strong rooms with three tier security layers and representatives of all political parties are allowed to guard the EVMs.

He added that the poll panel has taken all preparations across all 19 counting locations of Tripura as advised by the Election Commission of India (ECI) including round the clock CCTV coverage, uninterrupted power supply and massive security arrangements.

 All the strong rooms are under surveillance CCTVs in the strong rooms for 24- hours on a eight hour schedule basis, said Agarwal and added that additional and foolproof security measures have been taken for proper preservation and security of strong rooms and there is nothing to fear; the representatives of candidates can also keep watch on what is inside the strong room through CCTV from outside.

He said that a three-tier security measure has been adopted with Central Arms Police Forces (CAPFs) and state forces and a large number of forces will also deploy on the day of counting at the outside of counting halls to maintain law and order situation.

He said that there 19 counting stations for West Tripura and East Tripura LS seats and the counting for all 14 assembly segments under West Tripura district will be held at UK Academy simultaneously and there will be separate counting for the by-poll of 7-Ramnagar assembly seat on June 4th, said Dr Kumar.

He also said that training for counting officials have also been completed and soon the Poll Panel will organize meetings with representatives of different political parties for appointment of their respective counting agents.