Choppers, barges ferry officials to critical polling booths in state

Pune: Choppers are being used to access critical polling stations in Gadchiroli-Chimur while barges will be used in certain constituencies of Nandurbar, election officials said on Wednesday.Helicopters will transport 850 poll personnel to 206 polling stations. Election Commission of India has given permission for such transportation three days before polling day for polling personnel to reach polling stations on time with enough security. Gadchiroli-Chimur constituency goes to vote on Friday.The exercise started on Tuesday at 6.30 am and 65 polling parties comprising around 267 polling personnel were dispatched to ‘difficult to reach’ polling stations, Maharashtra’s chief electoral officer S Chockalingam told TOI.“This was a special provision as this area is in difficult terrain, Three MI 17 and four ALH helicopters of Indian Air Force and Indian Army are being used,” he added. The choppers are expected to make 150 sorties for 300 polling booths identified as sensitive area. The polling in these stations ends two hours before the general voting time, and arrangement has been made to enable the polling parties to return to headquarters before sunset, election officials added.Five polling stations in Nandurbar will be accessible by barge, he said. The ECI has requested security forces to deploy five helicopters to ferry election machinery, including EVMs and the workforce. Precautions are being taken for their safety and securing the EVMs from bid at sabotaging the poll exercise.These centres are located in the most inaccessible parts of the district, across the Narmada river’s waters in the Satpura mountain range. The district administration will be transporting EVMs to nine centres on barges on the night before the polls, and then back. Nandurbar will have the election on May 13. Polling centres that can only be reached by barges are Manibeli, Chimalkhedi, Dhankhedi, Mukhadi, Dhaneri, Gaman, Bhadal, Potdya and Bhabri in the Akkalkuva and Akrani talukas.Some villages were submerged by the Sardar Sarovar dam project, forcing the tribal population to move higher up. It takes up to two days to reach the villages on foot. Barges are the only convenient transport but they too take four hours.There is more deployment of security forces and observers for critical polling stations to ensure that the activities reported in the past do not happen, an election officer said. No govt buildings in some hamlets is a problem for the district administration. Three makeshift polling booths have been set up in Dhankhedi, Mukhadi and Zapi villages in Akkalkuva. Nandurbar is at the northernmost tip of the state.
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