A total of 890 Government officials headed by Assistant Returning Officers have been assigned the task of counting votes polled in the Tehri and Haridwar Parliamentary constituencies in the lok Sabha polls. The counting is to be held on May 16. In the first phase of training programme, the Government officials will be trained at ONGC auditorium between 2 pm and 5 pm on Saturday. The second phase training programme for these officials will be conducted in presence of Election Commission of India's appointed observers at the same venue on May 15. Dehradun district election officer and returning officer for Tehri lok Sabha seat Dr BVRC Purushottam on Friday said that elaborate arrangements have been made at the counting centre — Maharana Pratap Sports College, Raipur.
Purushottam said that all the polling parties stored the electronic voting machines in the 10 strong rooms at the counting venue. These strong rooms have been sealed in the presence of observers and other gazetted and police officers. Security has been beefed up with the deployment of adequate police forces outside strong rooms and counting venue. The chief development officer and assistant returning officers have been directed to visit the sports college twice daily and review the security there.
These officers have been directed to record their arrival time and date in the register which has been kept outside the strong room. Their inspection of strong rooms and other places at the counting venue should be videographed, he added.
At each of the 14 tables to be used for counting the votes assembly segment-wise, one micro observer, one counting supervisor and one counting assistant will be deployed. Eleven assistant returning officers have been deployed for completing the counting of votes. At counting centre, all the arrangements related to counting of votes at the venue will be done on time.
"Due to the hot weather, we have arranged fans, coolers and other facilities at the venue so that officials deployed on counting duty do not face any inconvenience," he added.
The Government officials who have been deployed for counting duty have been
directed to get detailed information about counting of votes so that they could not face any confusion during the counting. The employees have been directed to maintain transparency while counting the votes.