Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Dr S Karuna Raju on Tuesday said that all arrangements have been made for the counting of votes in the state on May 23, Thursday.
“Counting of votes will be held at 21 different locations in the state for 13 Parliamentary Constituencies, and it will begin on May 23 at 8 am,” he said.
Raju said that counting of votes for Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency would be held at various locations as per assembly constituency at SMDRSD College Pathankot and Sukhjinder Group of Institutes, Gurdaspur.
CEO said that counting of votes for Amritsar parliamentary constituency would be held at Mai Bhago Government Polytechnic College (Girls) Majitha Road, Amritsar; Khalsa Law College, Ram Tirath road; Khalsa College Amritsar, Government Industrial Training Institute, Ranjit Avenue; Khalsa College for Women, Khalsa College for Pharmacy, Amritsar; and Khalsa College Senior Secondary School, (Boys), Amritsar.
For Khadoor Sahib, the counting of votes will be held at Khalsa College for Engineering and Technology, Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar; International College of Nursing, NH-54, Village Piddi, Tarn Taran; Lecture Hall, Adjoining Auditorium, Mai Bhago College of Nursing, NH-54, Village Piddi; Multipurpose Hall, Adjoining Auditorium, Mai Bhago College of Nursing, NH-54, Village Piddi; Virsha vihar, Conference Hall, (Ground Floor), Kapurthala; Virsa Vihar, Ist Floor, Kapurthala; and Counting Hall-1, Dev Raj Groups Technical Campus, Zira Road, Ferozepur.
The counting of votes for Jalandhar would be held at two locations as per assembly constituency — Office of the Director Land Record, Kapurthala Road, Jalandhar; and Sports School Hostel, Adjoining Office of the Director Land Record, Kapurthala Road, Jalandhar.
CEO said that counting of votes for Hoshiarpur would be held at two locations — Government ITI, Hoshiarpur; and Rayat & Bahra Group of Institute, Hoshiarpur. For Anandpur Sahib, counting would be held at Doaba Polytechnic College Chokkran (Rahon), Government College, Rupnagar, and Government Polytechnic College Khunimarjra, Kharar.
Raju said that counting of votes for Ludhiana would be held at various locations of Punjab Agricultural University Campus. For Fatehgarh Sahib, counting centres were set up at Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University; GNE, Polytechnic College Ludhiana; Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana; Guru Nanak Dev Polytechnic College, Gill Road; and Guru Nanak Dev Polytechnic College.
CEO said that for Faridkot, the counting would be held at ITI Moga, Pandit Chetan Dev College of Education Faridkot; and Government Brijindra College, Faridkot.
He said that counting for Ferozepur would be held at various locations of Dev Raj Groups Technical Campus, Zira Road; SKB, Dev Centenary, Senior Secondary Public School; SKB Dev Senior Secondary School PenchaWali, Fazilka; MR College Fazilka, and Guru Nanak College, Tibbi Sahib, Road, Sri Muktsar Sahib.
For Bathinda, counting would be held at various locations of Institute of Hotel Management, Bathinda; various locations of PESCO Vocational Training Institute, Bathinda; and at various locations of Government Nehru Memorial College, Mansa.
He said that counting for Sangrur would be held at various locations of Desh Bhagat Polytechnic College, Dhuri, while the counting for Patiala would be held at Govt ITI, Near PRTC Workshop, Patiala; Govt Polytechnic College for Girls Patiala; various locations of Punjabi University, Patiala; Government Polytechnic College for Girls SST Nagar Rajpura Road Patiala; Thapar University Patiala; and at various locations of Gymnasium Hall Pollo Ground, Part-I and Part-II, Patiala.
FORCE DEPLOYED IN HARYANA STRONG ROOMS
Amid allegations by opposition regarding tampering of Electronic Voting Machines in strong rooms, Haryana Police has deployed six additional companies of Central paramilitary forces to ensure tight security of EVMs stored in strong rooms in seven districts of Haryana.
The districts included Rohtak, Sonipat, Jhajjar, Bhiwani, Sirsa, Hisar and Fatehabad.
Haryana Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Navdeep Singh Virk on Tuesday said that as per intelligence and other inputs, these seven districts are found to be sensitive.
He said that 12 companies of Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB), coming back from election duties on May 22 are also being deployed in these districts.
“We have also requested Ministry of Home Affairs to provide 20 companies of Central Armed Police Forces to ensure full-proof security of EVMs and it is hoped that we will get these shortly,” he said.
All these personnel would be deployed for safety of EVMs in these sensitive districts, Virk added.
The ADGP said that security has already been tightened at the strong rooms housing the EVMs to ensure peaceful counting of votes in the state. All the Commissioners of Police and district Superintendents of Police have been instructed to ensure round-the-clock vigil at the strong rooms across the state.
Apart from this, they have also been asked the ensure maintenance of law and order in their respective areas in view of the procession carried out by the winning candidates on the counting day, he said.
A three-layered security cover has already been put in place at the counting centres after elections to 10 Lok Sabha seats over in the state, Virk further added. The voting to 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana was held on May 12 and the counting will be held on May 23.