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 20 locations across Tripura, said CEO, Tripura, Puneet Agarwal.

Addressing a press conference at Civil Secretariat on Saturday afternoon, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Tripura, Puneet Agarwal along with two additional CEOs, Ushajen Mog and Subasish Bandopadhyay  the entire preparations for counting of polled votes for two Lok Sabha seats West Tripura and East Tripura and counting by-poll of 8-Ramnagar assembly constituency will begins from 8 AM of June 4th in 20 locations of the state along with entire nation.

He said that a total of seven counting stations for West Tripura LS and 15 more counting stations for East Tripura LS and two counting stations including Santirbazar and Belonia, where counting of polled votes would be held for both Lok Sabha seats. For counting of EVM votes, separate counting halls for all 60 assembly seats of Tripura have been prepared and Returning Officers (ROs) of both seats have also set up separate counting halls in their respective headquarters for postal ballot counting, said Agarwal.

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, said Agarwal.

He said that  after peaceful voting, whereas approximately 81.5% voters of the state cast their votes, the counting of polled votes , 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 20 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.

Agarwal added that there will be separate counting for the by-poll of 7-Ramnagar assembly seat on June 4th.

All the counting centres have separate media centres and the mobile phones of media persons will be allowed up to the media centre and inside counting halls, the Commission will not allow any kind of electronic gadgets and along with other listed items.

The poll panel has also appointed 31 counting observers for smooth and peaceful counting, said Agarwal.