LS polls: 7L PwD, senior citizen seek home-voting facility in TN: CEO Sahoo

CHENNAI: Around 7 lakh senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PwDs) in the state have requested home voting facilities for the Lok Sabha polls.

Electorates were not permitted to carry phones and cameras inside the polling booths, said CEO Satyabrata Sahoo

"We have received 7 lakh requests from senior citizens above 85 years and persons with disabilities for home voting facilities in the state. A team of officials, along with EVMs, VVPATs, will visit the electorates who availed the facility," said Sahoo after participating in the part time correspondents conference on coverage of Lok Sabhas organised by Prasar Barathi and Doordarshan.

Phones and cameras will be prohibited inside the polling station. "We will issue directions to industries and factories through the labour department to grant one day as paid holiday (on April 19) for all employees. It is mandatory, " he added.

The Commission has been taking efforts to encourage electorates in urban areas to actively participate in the democratic process and conducting door-to-door campaigns in booths that recorded low polling in previous elections, he said and also attributed the migration of voters from urban areas for education and jobs as one of the reasons for low voting percentage in urban areas, particularly metro cities.

The EC has carried out a campaign to identify the reason for such phenomena in metro cities, and found that many of the electorate are moving to different parts of the country for various reasons.

The Commission has been taking measures to weed out duplicate entries, he said, adding, "We have carried out photograph and demographic matching and found 14 lakh duplicate voters in the state in the last two years. They have been deleted."

Though the state falls under the "peaceful" state category in conducting elections, money menace is a concern, he said and continued that they have been strictly following the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections.

On the seizure of cash from tourists from Punjab in Nilgiris, Sahoo said that they were sensitive to conduct search and they have been holding virtual meetings with District Chief Election Officers daily to check and respond appropriately in such incidents.

"We will alert IT or custom department, if we seize Rs 10 lakh cash or above and valuables (gold ornaments). They have set procedures to look into such seizures, " CEO said.

"Social media disseminates news fast. It was good in a democracy, but irresponsible and fake news were unacceptable. We will alert police or the ECI, if any issue related fake news flagged and take measures to remove such content from the respective website.We will also take action on irresponsible and biased news and each district has media monitoring committee to look into it, " he further addressed.

Earlier, Sahoo appreciated the commitment of government employees and police personnel for conducting the election seamlessly with clockwise precision.

"More than 50% of the government employees, who will be engaged in the election duty, are women and their commitment are commendable, and 4 lakh government employees and 2.5 lakh to 3 lakh police personnel would be engaged in election duty in the state," Sahoo told on Tuesday.