LS polls: Bike rally organised to encourage voting in Chennai

CHENNAI: An bike rally to spread awareness to ensure 100 percent voting in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections in the city was flagged off by the District Election Officer J Radhakrishnan on Monday.

About 250 vehicles participated in the rally covering 10 kms through various locations in Kodambakkam zone.

As per the order of the Election Commission of India, awareness programmes have been conducted in the city on various levels to create awareness among the public on voting in the upcoming elections.

Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner and District Election Officer J Radhakrishnan said that with 3 days left for the election, all the election works are going on in full swing. Initially, 18 types of awareness programmes on voting were planned to be conducted in Chennai, which has now been increased to 45.

He said that steps have been taken to provide postal votes to the government officials and employees by extending the deadline to Monday, as many people were unable to exercise their postal votes at the 16 centers in Chennai.

"Voter information slips have been issued to 33.51 lakh voters out of 39.20 lakh voters, so far. Also, all the equipment required for polling including electronic voting machines, VVPAT machines, and control equipment is ready. The randomisation of EVMs was held in the presence of representatives of recognized political parties."

He said that the staff deployed at the polling centers will be given the details of the reporting centers in the presence of election observers. As many as 299 sector magistrates have been appointed to monitor 3,726 polling centers in Chennai.

They will be working on coordination with the police, supervise the functions at the safety rooms and polling stations.

He said that the machines will also be brought back to the security room after the polling by the staff and stored in the security rooms at the counting centers.

After the polling, the used electronic voting machines, the machines damaged during use and the unused machines will be kept separately in 3 security rooms.

He also informed that Rs 15.77 crores have been seized by surveillance teams and flying squads in the city.