Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): In the first phase of general election, voting for six Lok Sabha seats will be held on Friday. They are Sidhi, Shahdol, Jabalpur, Mandla, Balaghat and Chhindwara where polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. In Balaghat’s Baihar, Lanji, Paraswada, voting will be held from 7 am to 4 pm. In all, 2651 critical polling stations have been identified in six constituencies.
Interacting with the media persons, Chief Electoral Officer Anupam Rajan said 221 vulnerable places were also identified where sector officers would keep special vigil. To maintain law and order in first phase, prohibitory action has been taken against 49,334 people. About 192 flying squads and 233 static surveillance teams are keeping constant watch. Mandla has highest numbers of voters (21,01,811) and Chhindwara has lowest number of voters (16,32,190).
Air ambulance For the emergency service, one air ambulance was deployed in Jabalpur on Thursday. One helicopter will be stationed in Balaghat till polling gets over.
Webcasting Webcasting and CCTV arrangements have been made at 8,059 voting centres to keep a close watch on the anti- social elements. For queue management, webcasting will be done from outside at identified polling centres.
Polling booths The first phase of Lok Sabha election will take place at 13,588 voting centres. Of them, 1,118 voting centres will be manned by women and 33 by Divyang. There are 491 model voting centres.
