Preparations for the Lok Sabha elections have picked up speed all over the country. Some remote parts of the Naxal-hit Sinhbhum district of Jharkhand will go to polls this year for the first time or after decades.
Ranchi: Preparations for the Lok Sabha elections have picked up speed across the country. Some remote parts of the Naxal-hit Sinhbhum district of Jharkhand will go to polls this year for the first time or after decades. Voters living in Saranda, Asia’s densest forest of sal trees, will be voting for the first time this year. Voting material will be brought by helicopter for them. Similarly, election staff will also arrive here by air. A total of 118 polling stations will be set up for voting.
Speaking to PTI, Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer of West Singhbhum Kuldeep Chaudhary said that we are trying to ensure that no voter is deprived of voting. There are several villages in Sinhbhum district where elections will be held for the first time or after a gap of almost two decades.
These villages have stayed away from voting so far due to intense Naxal activities. Despite the improvement in the situation, West Singhbhum remained one of the most Naxal-affected areas in the country. In the last year, 46 incidents related to Naxalism took place in this place. Similarly, around 22 people died. In this year’s elections, voting will be held for the first time at polling stations such as Middle School, Nugdi and Madhya Vidyalaya, Bolero etc.
Election materials will be brought by air to places like Robokera, Bini, Rom, Thalkobad, Hansabeda and Chhota Nagar. In some places the election workers have to travel four to five km. Distance also has to be walked. We are taking care that no section should be deprived of voting this time. Thalkobad and two dozen other villages were earlier called ‘free zones’. There was no administration in these villages. However, due to the security forces’ ‘Operation Anaconda’ and other strike missions, the administration managed to re-establish itself.
He also said that a total of 15 camps of security forces have been set up in this region. Besides helicopters, election workers will also arrive by rail and road. 121 teams will be sent by rail and it has also been tested. On the day of polling, all teams will reach by 5:30 am.
Chaudhary also said that 62 voters are centenarians in these constituencies. Among them, voters who cannot walk to the polling station have been given the option of voting from home.
Maoist-hit areas of #Jharkhand‘s #Singhbhum to vote for first-timehttps://t.co/nPicqKnVed
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) April 7, 2024
Efforts to increase voter turnout
In Singhbhum, the administration is taking unique measures to increase the participation of voters living in dense forests. In this, a big balloon has been erected at a height of 100 feet and 1,284 ‘Chunav Pathshalas’ have also been erected.
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