Lok Sabha Polls- Manipur: 94 special polling stations created for more than 20000 IDPs

Manipur CEO Pradeep Kumar Jha shared this information today and said that elaborate arrangements are being made in this aspect.

The Election Commission has made special arrangements for the Internally Displaced People (IDP)s in Manipur so that nothing can stop the conflict affected people from participating in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.

Manipur Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pradeep Kumar Jha briefing newspersons said that a total of 94 special polling stations have been created for more than 20000 IDPs affected in the last year’s conflict.

Elaborate arrangements are being done to make sure that the IDPs can exercise their franchise and take part in the biggest festival of democracy.

Sharing details about this, the Manipur CEO said, “We are all aware that there is a large section of population particularly the voters who got displaced during the conflict. So across 10 districts in more than 300 relief camps, we have identified approximately 24,500 voters and for them arrangements have been made. We have distributed the ID forms through which the displaced voters would be given the choice for the polling station, especially created for them where they would be voting. In the state 94 special polling stationg have been created for the IDPs. These 94 special polling stations comprise both for Inner and Outer.”

“To be more precise for the Inner Manipur parliamentary constituency 29 special polling stations have been created whereas for the Outer Manipur constituency 65 polling stations have been created,” CEO Pradeep Kumar Jha added.

Speaking about the security arrangments being made in view of the impending elections, Jha said, “Adequate security deployment has already been done in the state. We are aware that we had been allocated 200 paramilitary companies (central paramilitary forces) for both the phases. Most of them required for the 1st phase of election have already been deployed in different districts depending on the sensitivity and criticality of the various polling stations. Those arrangements have been made by the District Election Officers (DEO)s, our DCs and the SPs. How to deploy them is also being worked in close coordination with state police nodal officer and the police headquarters. That is being done as per the guidelines of the ECI.”

On the other hand, the Manipur CEO also launched a Signature Campaign on Electoral Participation, aimed at targeting all electors and particularly the youth to cast their votes on the poll day in a free, fair, peaceful manner and without any inducement or fear from any external factor.

Watch also: Manipur Lok Sabha elections 2024: Signature campaign for free, fair & peaceful polls

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