Hyderabad, Nov 10 (IANS) A total of 139 drones will be deployed as part of the arrangements to ensure smooth and free and fair polling for the by-election to the Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

For the first time, the authorities are deploying the drones to cover all polling stations in a constituency.

For the first time, drone surveillance is being deployed at all polling locations, for centralised aerial monitoring and real-time situation analysis, said Telangana Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudharshan Reddy.

The drones will help to closely monitor the election process at 407 polling stations located in 139 buildings. The real-time surveillance will provide a bird’s-eye view of the polling stations and help the poll authorities in identifying any disturbances quickly.

A control room has been set up at the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) head office to monitor the drone usage.

The drones were handed over to officials concerned at the distribution, reception and counting centre, where the polling officials were given the EVMs and other polling material. A demo show of drones was also held in the presence of District Election Officer RV Karnan.

Polling will be held from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Voters standing in queues at polling booths at 6 p.m. would be allowed to cast their votes.

A little over 4 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the by-election, which is necessitated by the death of sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

A total of 58 candidates are in the fray, but the main contest is between the ruling Congress party and opposition BRS and BJP.

The BRS has fielded Gopinath’s wife, Sunitha, while Naveen Yadav has entered the fray on the Congress ticket. The BJP has once again fielded Lankala Deepak Reddy.

Hyderabad District Election Officer Karnan said live webcasting will be carried out from all polling stations for peaceful polling and maintaining law and order.

As many as 226 of the 407 polling stations in 65 locations have been identified as critical polling stations, where paramilitary forces will be deployed.

Karnan said 2,060 polling personnel will be on duty. They include 515 polling officers and an equal number of assistant polling officers.

Keeping in view the large number of contesting candidates, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) consisting of one Control Unit (CU), four Ballot Units (BUs) and one VVPAT will be provided to all polling stations. A total of 561 CUs, 2,394 BUs and 595 VVPATs will be deployed.

Forty engineers/technicians of Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) will be deployed to meet any contingency.

Transportation of EVMs using GPS-fitted vehicles will be continuously monitored from the Control Room. Any faulty polling equipment on the Poll Day will be replaced with functional reserve equipment, as per ECI guidelines.

The are a total of 4,01,365 voters in the constituency comprising 2,08,561 males, 1,92,779 females and 25 others.

According to DEO, there are 6,859 voters in the age group of 18-19 years, while 2,134 voters are above 85 years.

He said 103 absentee voters (above 85 years and PwD voters) have exercised their option for a postal ballot, and out of them 101 have utilised the postal ballot voting.

Mobile deposit counters are being opened at all the polling stations to facilitate voters to deposit their mobile phones before entering into polling stations and to take back after casting their vote.

A three-tier security system has been put in place. The Hyderabad Police Commissioner is deploying striking forces to arrange sufficient security at all the polling stations and mobile squads to monitor the law and order so as to ensure the peaceful conduct of the poll.

According to CEO Sudharshan Reddy, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is deployed in 68 Polling Station locations.

Hyderabad Joint Commissioner of Police Tafseer Iqbal said that 1,761 police personnel have been deployed.

–IANS

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