An Indian Air Force (IAF) Chopper on Thursday ‘mistakenly’ dropped a Jharkhand’s polling team on duty for the first phase of assembly elections on November 30 in Chattisgarh, the neighbouring state.
The Latehar district administration had sent 18 members of the nine polling parties for Chatakpur cluster centre in Manika assembly constituency where the polling is scheduled for today. Of the 18, 8 members were who had taken off from a helipad at the district headquarters in Latehar were dropped in at Sattipara field in Pratappur Bhainsamunda area of Surajpur district in Chhattisgarh.
As soon as the officers realized that they were dropped at the wrong location, informed the Latehar deputy commissioner (DC) and district election officer (DEO) Zeeshan Qmar, who then alerted his Chhattisgarh counterpart, Dipak Soni.
In a hurry, a team of officials arrived at the site of landing to provide security to the ‘air-dropped’ officials. Another helicopter from Latehar later arrived to safely transport the officials where they were needed.
The Latehar DC later said, “The chopper lost its way and dropped the polling personnel in adjoining Chhattisgarh. The pilot had picked the details of a wrong location. They are all safe and have been brought back to Chatakpur.”
Raees Ahmad, one of the polling personnel, said, “The pilot of the IAF chopper asked us to alight in a field saying the engine had developed some technical snag. We obeyed and got down. Before we could understand something, the chopper left us and flew back.”
“On realising where we are, we panicked at first but soon villagers reached there and assured us of safety,” said Krishna Ram, another member of polling party.
Two days before the polling day, the district administration has sent 125 polling parties to cluster centres by three IAF choppers.
