286 sensitive, 78 highly sensitive polling stations in Uttara Kannada; 92 booths have no phones

Karwar, Mar 13: A total of 1,922 polling stations would be set up in the six Assembly segments of Uttara Kannada district and two Assembly segments of Belagavi district that fall under the Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha constituency.

Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha constituency comprises the Assembly segments of Kittur and Khanapur (Belagavi district), Haliyal, Karwar, Kumta, Bhatkal, Sirsi and Yallapur (Uttar Kannada).

Deputy Commissioner of Uttar Kannada and Election Officer K. Harish Kumar told presspersons in Karwar on Monday that the constituency had a total of 15,34,036 voters comprising 7,78,350 male voters, 7,55,678 female voters and eight voters of the third gender.

He said that adequate arrangements would be made to ensure free and fair polls in the constituency and there would be model polling stations painted in blue wherever the number of specially abled voters was high. There would also be transport facility for them, ramps and wheelchairs at the polling stations and Braille facility for the visually impaired, he said.

The constituency would have 12 Sakhi polling stations painted in pink where only female officers would be deployed on duty.

In the wake of introduction of VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail), there would be an additional staff at each polling station making it a total of 7,472 officers on poll duty, he said.

Among the 1,922 polling stations in the constituency, 92 polling stations were located in such places where there was no telephone connectivity (either land or mobile phone).

While in some places, wireless sets would be used, in other places, two runners would be appointed, Mr. Harish Kumar said. Superintendent of Police of Uttara Kannada Vinayak Patil said that 286 polling booths had been considered as sensitive and 78 as highly sensitive.

He said that a total of 1,119 cases had been registered against 314 out of the 317 persons in the district identified as persons with criminal background.

This apart, it had been proposed to invoke provisions of Goonda Act against one person and extern five.

Of the total 8,579 licensed guns in the district, 2,000 guns had been deposited in the respective police stations, he said.

In case of election malpractices, people could file complaint by calling the toll free number 1950 or on Whatsapp number 9483511015, Mr. Harish Kumar said, while appealing to the public to also make use of ECI mobile application, cVIGIL.