M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, May 17: 83 polling booths have been relocated for the second phase of polling in Palamu district which is due on May 19 and the counting of votes on May 22, according to Shailesh Kumar Singh, a senior officer of the Palamu collectorate.
Voting for the second phase will be held at 848 booths.
Shailesh said the Palamu administration has relocated 193 booths out of the total of 3,305 booths till now.
Palamu is scheduled to have a four-phase panchayat election. In the first phase, 60 booths were relocated. In the second phase, 83 booths have been relocated.
According to Shailesh, the third and fourth stages will also see booth relocations. The number of relocated booths during the third phase is 37. The final phase of voting will take place at 911 booths. The number of relocated booths during the fourth and final phase will be 13.
The number of the relocated booths in the fourth phase is the lowest because despite voting at 796 booths, the spread areas of Bishrampur, Pandu, Chainpur, Ramgarh and Sadar Medininagar are relatively less vulnerable to extremism.
Palamu district election officer cum DC Shashi Ranjan said, “We did relocate booths but it was all for the safety of all the stakeholders the candidates, the voters, the polling parties and the security forces.”
