Borders sealed, surveillance active throughout Tripura ahead of April 19 Lok Sabha elections

Quite disappointing

Borders sealed, surveillance active throughout Tripura ahead of April 19 Lok Sabha elections

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Tripura, Puneet Agarwal, on Tuesday visited a postal ballot facilitation centre at Sishu Bihar Higher Secondary School in Agartala, three days ahead of the first phase of Lok Sabha elections. He said all necessary arrangements have been made to ensure a free, fair and peaceful poll as Tripura West goes to poll on April 19, followed by Tripura East on April 26 in the second phase.

Postal ballot services are for service voters, including administrative and police personnel and essential services such as media. The facilitation service started on Monday and will continue until Wednesday. While essential service employees cast their mandate a day ago on Monday, civil and police personnel were set to vote on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters at the facilitation centre, the CEO said the election process began with the announcement of Lok Sabha polls on March 16, but preparations for free, fair, and peaceful elections started a few months ago, especially from November to December last year.

“We got sector officers who were doing vulnerability mapping and checking polling stations to ensure that the assured minimum facilities were available at all those locations. The first phase of elections is three days away. All arrangements were made to ensure free, fair, and peaceful elections,” the CEO said.

Out of 28,60,287 voters across the state, 14,63,526 are scheduled to cast their mandate in the first phase when Tripura West goes to poll. Among them, 12,800 engaged on poll duty are scheduled to cast votes through postal ballots.

“Polling parties were formed, they were given postal ballot voting facilities. These were given so that polling officials could cast vote on April 19 in their nearby polling stations,” CEO Agarwal said.

As per ECI schedule, all polling parties would go with security forces for their polling stations on April 18.

On the security front, the CEO said Tripura has 84 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), who are now conducting area domination and flag marches in different areas to instill confidence among voters to cast their votes without fear, favour, or dispute.

While Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was scheduled to visit the state to hold a roadshow for INDIA bloc candidates. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Agartala on Wednesday and the campaigning is set to end after 5 pm.

The CEO stated that after the campaign concludes, rallies, public meetings, and road shows will be suspended. All non-residents will be required to leave, and the international border will be sealed. All checkpoints will be tightly monitored and checked to ensure that only eligible voters enter areas scheduled to undergo polling on April 19.

Since March 16, various mobile and static surveillance teams have seized cash and contraband items worth Rs 25 crore from different parts of the state.

The CEO said there are 185 surveillance points throughout the state where all vehicles, including buses and trucks, are being checked. The CEO also mentioned that various central agencies, such as the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Income Tax (IT), are seizing illegal items and cash from different areas.

Debraj Deb – 2024-04-16 19:31

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