Assam LS Polls: Cachar DC Rohan Kumar Jha speaks about preparations for poling on April 26

The stage is all set for the second phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 across the state of Assam.  The Cachar district administration has started deploying the presiding officers, polling staffs to their respective polling stations since 6 a.m in the morning .

Speaking to Northeast Live, the Cachar District Commissioner, Rohan Kumar Jha said, “Today we are sending polling officials to 610 polling stations in the three LACs of Cachar district – Katigorah, Lakhipur and Dholai. Tomorrow we will be sending to 941 polling stations in the other four LACs -Silchar , Borkhola , Sonai and Udharband”.

Jha mentioned that more than seven thousand polling officials will be deployed in these two days. The total number of polling stations in Cachar district stands at 1,551.

While speaking about the preparations for the elections, Jha said, “The machines are there for training. Suppose any polling teams want a last minute clarification, they can come to the training counter and get help.”

 “As for the EVM machines, we have commissioned the machines, we have checked them, but it may be a case where once the machine is  opened in the field in the polling station, there may be some error. So we have given extra EVMs to our 29 sector officers and 26 zonal officers. In case of any replacement, they will be the first responders. They will replace the defective EVMs with the fresh EVM which they will have in stock.” added DC Rohan Kumar Jha.

While answering about the arrangements made to curb the delay in starting the voting procedure due to faulty machines Jha said, “Sometimes it happens that during the mock polls, the machines gets defective, the ideal time of starting mock polling is 5:30 a.m, 90 minutes before 7 a.m. if there is a polling agent present at the moment then he will start the mock polling immediately. If there is no poling agent, the presiding officer waits for 15 minutes and then start the mock polling. During the mock poling, our sector officers are very vigilant because they know that by 7 a.m if there is any mock poll defective EVM,  then he has to replace that EVM and in the Replaced EVM, the mock poll has to be conducted. So it may happen that if the EVM gets defective at 6:30 a.m, the actual poll starts at  7 or 7:15 a.m. because we have to do the mock poll, which is mandatory.”

Rohan Kumar Jha also assured that the authorities will try to facilitate every voter who come to the polling station. Even at 5 p.m if a voter is near by or did not cast his vote, but he is in the polling station, he will be allowed to cast the vote.

Speaking on conducting a free and fare elections Jha said, “For free and fare elections we have ensured that all the constituency magistrates will be in their constituencies on the polling day on Aprill 26. The forces and additional forces which we have received yesterday will also be patrolling continuously. We have also allotted helpline numbers. For any grievance that comes to light the sector officers and the constituency magistrates will look over. We will try to decrease the response time to avert complication in law and order”

It is to be mentioned here that Cachar district in Assam will go to polls in the second phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 to be held on April 26 along with Karimganj,, Nagaon, Darrang-Udalguri and Diphu.