A day after the polling for 13 Assembly seats of Kolhan, over two dozen polled Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were air-lifted to be sealed at the strongroom in Jamshedpur Co-operative College (JCC) today.
Sources went on to inform that EVMs from as many as 25 polling booths were air-lifted from the naxal-infested Ghatshila and Ghurabandha constituencies on Wednesday morning.
The polled-EVMs were not brought from remote areas in Ghatshila and Ghurabandha assembly constituencies on Tuesday, as they were first brought to the cluster centres set up in the block offices.
The equipment was scheduled to be air-lifted yesterday but due to darkness the administration decided to bring the EVMs on Wednesday morning only.
East Singhbhum district senior superintendent of police, Amol V Homkar confirmed that the over two dozen EVMs were air-lifted from the naxal-infested areas on Wednesday.
"Several areas like Jhantijharna, Balidih, Bhumgu in Ghatshila constituency and Muchrisole, Bakrikocha, and Dangra Pahad in Ghurabandha which falls under Bahragora assembly constituencies are Naxal infested areas. We wanted to ensure safety at every point. Air-lifting EVMs them from the cluster-points was not feasible as it had started becoming dark yesterday," said the senior SP.
Homkar said the EVMs were carried under tight security by choppers which landed at the Sonari aerodrome and from there to the college ground.
Six constituencies which falls under East Singhbhum are Jamshedpur East, Jamshedpur West, Jugsalai, Ghatshila, Potka and Baharagora Assembly constituencies.