As many as five blocks of Ranchi and other parts of rural areas besides semi-urban areas of Jharkhand would go to polls in the third phase of Panchayat Elections on Saturday for electing ward members, Mukhiya, Panchayat Samiti Members and members for Zila Parishad.
As many as 589 representatives to the three-tier Panchayati Raj Institutions would be elected through direct voting in the five blocks—Khalari, Burhmu, Ratu, Mandar and Chanho— that will take place between 7am and 3pm on Saturday.
“Polling parties have been dispatched and they have reached their respective clusters. We have formed 173 polling parties besides zonal magistrates have also been deployed in each block,” said Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi, Manoj Kumar.
Around 1038 polling centres have been setup comprising booths whose sensitivity has been decided by taking into consideration history of communal clashes, political reasons besides threat of naxal to electoral process which is the usual reason for determining sensitivity of polling booths. The district police has executed 786 warrants till the third phase of Panchayat polls and recovered country-made pistols, single barrel gun, seized country liquor and registered two cases of violation of model code of conduct. As many as 2000 police force including district armed police and rural police will be used to ensure peaceful election whereas requirement of additional forces would be met by mobile policing.
“Considering the strength of the police that we have for Panchayat election we have decided to deploy motorcycle patrol party and mobile patrol party. The CAPF (Central Armed Police Force) would assist in route sensitisation and area domination,” said Ranchi SSP, Prabhat Kumar.
The election is likely to be participated by 3,22,629 voters (male-1,66,900 and female- 1,55,729) in the voting process for the three-tier Panchayati Raj system at 571 places in 84 panchayats of the five blocks of the district.
Meanwhile, 70 blocks of Jharkhand would also go to polls in the third phase of Panchayat election and the fate of 35,469 candidates would be decided by around 44.63-lakh voters at 14098 polling centres.