E-Paper
26% polling stations Ludhiana in ‘critical category’
Ludhiana central is the worst-off with the maximum, 95, polling stations in critical category, followed by Atam Nagar
Maintaining law and order in Ludhiana on polling day will prove to be a mammoth task for the administration with about 26% of the polling stations here being declared critical by the election commission. The district has 2,979 polling stations, of which 785 are critical. The maximum, 95, critical stations are in the Ludhiana (central) constituency while Samrala has the least number of critical polling stations.
At the critical polling stations, the number of police personnel would be more as compared to other polling stations.
Atam Nagar has 83 ‘critical’ stations
The Atam Nagar constituency, from where Lok Insaf Party (LIP) chief and two-time MLA Simarjit Singh Bains, and his friend-turned-foe Congress nominee Kamaljit Singh Karwal are fighting, has seen multiple flare-ups ever since campaigning kicked off. The seat has 170 polling stations, of which 83 have been declared critical.
In 2019, the constituency had 74 hyper-sensitive (critical) polling stations.
Ludhiana central
Sitting Congress MLA Surinder Dawar, BJP candidate Gurdev Sharma Debi, SAD candidate Pritpal Singh Pali and Congress rebel Ashok Pappi Parashar, who is contesting on an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket, are in the fray from Ludhiana central where 53% of the 178 polling stations are critical. During general elections of 2019, a total of 14 polling stations were in the hyper-sensitive category here while 24 were in the sensitive category.
Gill constituency
Gill constituency, which has also been in news following an attack on BJP candidate and former bureaucrat SR Ladhar, has 59 critical polling stations while the total number of stations is 307.
During the 2019 general elections, it had 106 sensitive and 27 hyper-sensitive polling stations.
Ashu’s seat on tinder box too
Ludhiana (West), from where cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu is contesting, has 75 critical polling stations out of 200. He is up against Congress rebel Gurpreet Singh Gogi, who is fighting on an AAP ticket, SAD candidate and former minister Maheshinder Grewal, BJP candidate Bikram Sidhu and Sanyukt Samaj Morcha candidate Tarun Jain Bawa. In 2019, 14 polling stations were sensitive and 18 were hyper-sensitive here.
Dry day declared from Feb 18 evening to end of voting
In view of the polling day on February 20, district magistrate-cum-deputy commissioner of Ludhiana, Varinder Kumar Sharma has declared dry day in the district from 6pm on February 18 to February 20, 2022 till conclusion of voting.
Divulging the details, the deputy commissioner (DC) said that dry day has also been declared on March 10, the day of counting of votes.
The DC said that on these days, no hotels, restaurants, clubs and others will be allowed to serve liquor on their premises. He further said that on these days, no person is allowed to store liquor either.
11pm curfew for hotels, eateries
In another order, the district magistrate, Ludhiana, stated that it has come to his notice that some hotels, restaurants/dhabas, liquor shops etc. stay open for a long time at night and illegal activities are being carried out by anti-social elements. This creates a sense of fear among the general public and also disrupts the law and order. Therefore, special measures need to be taken in the public interest to prevent such incidents at hotels/dhabas, liquor shops at night.
While exercising the powers under Section 144 of CRPC of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (Act-2 of 1974), the district magistrate has prohibited hotels, restaurants/distilleries and liquor shops from being open after 11pm. These orders will remain in force till March 12.
DC meets returning officers
Meanwhile, the district election officer-cum-deputy commissioner of Ludhiana, Varinder Kumar Sharma on Tuesday directed all 14 returning officers (ROs) to ensure that best arrangements for stay, food and refreshment are made for election staff deputed for poll duty.
Sharma also held a video conferencing with all 14 ROs and sector officers. He directed the ROs to ensure that proper transportation facility is provided to voters aged above 80 and persons with disabilities. He said the district administration has appointed 235 sector officers to keep a close vigil on minute-to-minute election activities on polling day (February 20) and a day before polling by empowering them with magisterial powers.
Further, he said that sector officers have been given training about working of Punjab Poll Day Monitoring App (PPDMA) which has been installed on their mobile phones.
He said that these sector officers would share the details of dispatch and arrival of polling parties at booths, setting up of polling station, starting of the mock poll, EVM and VVPAT cleared, polling started or delayed, halted and resumed, the number of votes polled after every two hours, the number of persons standing in a queue after 6 pm, departure and arrival of polling parties at the collection centres and also of depositing of EVMs.
He said the district administration is duty-bound to ensure smooth and hassle-free polling process in the district.
