Ahmedabad:
Pre-poll preparations have been completed in all the four assembly constituencies in the western part of rural Ahmedabad going to polls on Thursday in the first phase, a top officer said on Wednesday.
"Close to 7,000 polling personnel and 5,000 security personnel from Central paramilitary forces, state police force and home guards, have been deployed across 1,040 polling stations in the four Assembly constituencies to ensure fair and peaceful elections," chief District Election Officer Vijay Nehra told reporters.
Assembly constituencies of Sanand, Viramgam, Dholka and Dhandhuka, which fall under the western rural Ahmedabad, are going to polls on Thursday among 87 seats across the state.
"Across the four seats, 297 polling booths have been identified as critical or vulnerable", he said.
Nehra said attention will be focused on "critical" polling booths and adequate resources in the form of videographers and photographers have been provided at all polling stations.
"Proceedings at certain polling stations will be monitored by web-casting during entire polling procedure," the officer said.
"School and college students, who had laptops with web cameras, were identified and trained in web-casting," Nehra added.
The officer said that distribution of voter slips has been over in all polling stations and duplicate slips will be given on Thursday to those who wish to exercise their franchise and have not received the slips so far.
"Poll day monitoring will be conducted in every polling booth in all the four constituencies. Booth-level officers will inform their arrival at respective polling stations or booths through SMS," he added.
Nehra said the lowest number of voters in a polling station was in Dholka assembly seat's polling station No. 171 with 163 voters while the highest number at Dhandhuka Assembly seat's polling station No. 51 with 1,454 voters.
Nehra stated that 100 per cent EPIC card distribution and Photo Electoral Cards had been achieved in all the four assembly seats.