Bidar Deputy Commissioner Govind Reddy, who is also the District Election Officer, inspected the security arrangements at counting centres at B.V. Bommareddi College in Bidar on Friday said that all requisite arrangements have been made for facilitating transparent counting process and declaration of results.
There will be six counting centres (one each for Basava Kalyana, Humnabad, Bidar South, Bidar, Bhalki and Aurad Assembly constituency). Mr. Reddy said that each centre will have 14 EVM counting tables for each constituency.
In addition to this, Bidar constituency counting centre will have five ballot counting tables; four each postal ballot counting tables for Aurad, Bhalki and Humnabad constituencies; and three each postal ballot counting tables at Basavakalyan in Bidar South counting centres have been arranged.
Counting halls
The district authorities had set up two EVM counting halls for four constituencies (Humnabad, Bidar, Bhalki and Aurad) and one each hall for Basavakalyan in Bidar South constituencies. While, one separate hall has been set up for counting the postal ballots of each constituency, Mr. Reddy added.
Liquor ban, Section 144 imposed
The Bidar district police have imposed a ban on the sale of liquor across the district from Friday midnight to Saturday 12.00 a.m., Mr. Reddy added that the prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code have been imposed between 6.00 a.m. on Saturday and 6.00 a.m. on Sunday.
Three-tier security
About the three-tier security measures have been put in place for the counting of votes in Bidar district, Superintendent of Police Chennabasavanna Langoti said that two platoons of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Special Weapons and tactics (SWAT) team were deployed near the strong rooms, three platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) posted in second layer and district police personnel were manning the outer layer.
Besides this, a Superintendent of Police, two Additional Superintendent of Police, four Deputy Superintendent of Police, nineteen Circle Police Inspectors, 37 Police Sub-Inspectors, sixty Assistant Sub-Inspectors and 387 police constables were deployed to ensure the safety of EVMs and VVPAT machines of all six assembly constituencies in Bidar district.
