Aurangabad, Jan 11:
The election of 612-gram panchayats (GPs) in the district will be held on January 15. A total of 15 lakh voters will be casting their votes. However, the local administration is waiting to receive fresh guidelines, in connection with Covid-19 positive patients and suspects undergoing quarantine, from the State Election Commission (SEC). Hence it is unclear whether they would be allowed to cast their vote in the last hour like during the Marathwada Graduates Constituency election or not? Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, the health administration has decided to conduct screening of each voter and then allow entry at each polling station.
It may be noted that there are 11,499 candidates in the fray. The voting will be held through 2090 prabhags and 2261 polling stations in nine tehsils of the district. The tehsil wise strength of polling stations are as follows: Vaijapur - 315, Sillod - 336, Kannad-312, Paithan - 321, Aurangabad - 316, Gangapur - 287, Phulambri- 171, Soyegaon-114 and Khuldabad-89.
The assistant commissioner (SEC) J T More said, " The provision of a facility to Covid-19 positive and symptomatic patients during gram panchayat elections is yet to be announced. In Marathwada Graduates Constituency election they were allowed to cast their vote in the last hour."
Deputy collector Rita Maitrewar also underlined that there are no fresh instructions received from SEC in this regard.
Meanwhile, the health section with the help of block development officer (BDO) and gram panchayats has prepared to conduct all voters' screening. The administration has geared up to use thermal guns and pulse oximeters to screen voters, apart from the provision of sanitisers.
A total of 46,243 Covid-19 patients were there in the district, out of which, 44,606 had recovered. A total of 422 patients are undergoing treatment in various hospitals, and 6,471 are undergoing home quarantine.