Elaborate arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of the Odisha Municipal Elections on March 24, said State Election Commissioner Aditya Prasad Padhi on Wednesday.
As many as 195 platoons of the police force comprising OSAP, IR Battalion and special Security Battalion have been deployed for conducting free and fair elections in 106 Municipality, NACs and three Corporations. As many as 30 platoons of police force will be deployed in Bhubaneswar to maintain law and order issues during the elections. Similarly, 20 and 10 platoons of police force will be deployed in Cuttack and Berhampur, respectively to prevent any untoward incident during the election. Apart from that, mobile squads will be operating in different areas.
“Preparations for the election have reached the last stage. As many as 22,000 polling officials have been deployed for the conduct of the electoral process. Most of the officials have been dispersed to the booths. All of them will reach their respective booths this afternoon,” said Padhi, adding that stern action will be taken against those voters casting double votes.
“I urge all the urban area voters to participate in the festival of democracy and cast their franchise from 8 am to 5 pm tomorrow,” he said.
Notably, a total of 40.55 lakh voters will cast their votes during the ULB polls. The counting will be held on March 26.