A total of 51.12 per cent voters exercised their right to vote in the civic poll 2013 in Hazaribagh. It was informed by Deputy Development Commissioner Dibar Jonko, also in-charge of control room. Voting for the posts of chairman and 30 ward councilors of Hazaribagh municipal council started at 7 am and concluded at 3 pm. The voters have given their verdict which has been sealed and now on April 11winners will be declared.
In the morning when voting started people turned out in large numbers to exercise their right but as the sun rose up and day started to become hot the number of voters went down. After 10 am there was no queue at any booth and in the midday there was a deserted look at almost all the booths this newsman visited. The low voting percentage clearly indicates that the strategy of candidates to bring out voters out of their homes failed.
Though the administration has made tight arrangement of security by providing static force at every booth but complains of bogus polling came from some booths. The administration has taken into custody two member of a polling party of ward no. 28, booth no. 2 on the charge of helping in bogus voting.
This time the administration had increased the number of booths and the maximum no. of voters at a booth was about 500. Due to this restructuring of booths many voters were seen moving to and fro to get out their actual booth. Some voters complained that their names have been deleted from the voter list while some complained that their name has been transferred into other ward’s list.
Due to this some voters failed to exercise their right. This time first the candidates were seen cutting their campaign cost and now administration was found keen to save the government revenue. All the reserved polling parties were departed today without paying a single paisa and first time in any election the administration not taken the services of private vehicles. For transportation of polling parties school buses were used and officers were seen patrolling on government vehicles.
Mismanagement at some booths irked the polling parties. Yesterday a high voltage drama took place at lakshmi Urdu Girl’s School where the polling parties of six booths found the gate locked when they reached there. They reported it to high officials and after arrival of SDO, DSP and OIC it was found that president of the School Management Committee advocate BZ Khan has locked the gate and is traceless. After about 7 hour long drama finally the gate opened.
At Jack and Jill School booth the polling party was given rooms in the backyard where they sat in scorching sunlight. Some days ago DC had inspected the booths and ordered to arrange light and water there but nowhere this arrangement was made for the polling parties.