After successful conduction of 18th Lok Sabha elections for West Tripura parliamentary constituency on April 19th last, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has taken massive arrangement to conduct counting of polled votes in free and fair manner.

Returning Officer (RO) of West Tripura LS seat and DM(West) Dr Vishal Kumar 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.

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.

 All the strong rooms are under surveillance CCTVs in the strong rooms for 24- hours on a eight hour schedule basis, said Dr Kumar 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 seven counting stations for West Tripura LS seat including one in Umakanta Academy, 3 in Sepahijala district, one in Gomati district and 2 more in South Tripura district.

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 has also been completed and soon the Poll Panel will organize meetings with representatives of different political parties for appointment of their respective counting agents.