Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Voting for the Zilla Parishad (ZP) and Panchayat Samiti (PS) elections will be held on February 7. The administration is in a predicament since the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) is also scheduled on the same date.
Around 12,000 employees were deployed for election duty, but approximately 2500 of them will be required for the CTET examination. Therefore, 2500 employees will have to be appointed from other departments at the last minute on the day of the election. The employees will have to be given training in a hurry.
The election schedule was initially set for voting on February 5 and counting on February 7. The Election Commission revised the schedule for voting on February 7 and counting on February 9 last week.
This has created the current dilemma. Although the candidates have received two extra days for campaigning, the administration will have to perform a tightrope walk. The election campaigning was halted for two days because of the period of mourning declared by the Government.
Consequently, the election schedule was extended by two days. The administration has completed its preparations for the elections. The voting process will be completed using EVMs brought from Nanded, Hingoli, Madhya Pradesh, and Dharashiv.
Voting will now be conducted at 2,282 polling stations in 63 gats and 126 gans in the district from 7.30 AM to 5.30 PM on February 7. There are 2489 postal voters. The total number of voters is 18.73 lakh. This includes 9.79 lakh male and 8.93 lakh female voters. A total of 41 voters are transgender. The voting process will take place at 2282 polling stations, requiring approximately 12,000 employees.
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Employees from other departments will have to be appointed immediately. Orders for 2500 employees will be issued immediately.
(Sangeeta Rathod, Deputy Collector)