With just few hours to go for counting the votes, official machinery in Nagpur is making all the required preparations for the exercise. While the counting for the Nagpur and Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency would be held at the APMC kalamna Market in the city on the morning of June 4.
Counting for the Nagpur LS constituency would be held at Kalamna Market Hall No 1, and Ramtek Counting will be held at Hall No 2, total 120 tables have been set up for counting of votes from the six assembly constituencies. 10 tables have been exclusively allotted to count postal votes. Each candidate can depute one agent for each table during the counting process.
Electronic gadgets including mobile phones and laptops will not be allowed inside the counting centres.
Election officials said that the agents should assemble at the counting centres one hour before the commencement of the counting, along with their identity cards given by the election commission and nomination letters from the candidates. Collector Dr Vipin Itankar who is the district election officer, said that the agents would face action if they deviate from norms.
Security forces have already been deployed to guard the electronic voting machines, a large posse of police personnel would also be deployed on the day of counting to provide additional security.
Only those with identity cards issued by the ECI would be allowed inside the counting centre, a police officer said. The counting would begin at 8am. The entire process would be videotaped
Dr. Vipin Itankar has directed officials to plan the parking, traffic, and security systems in the Kalamna area. Initially, the counting will start with postal ballots, followed by the counting of votes from the EVM machines
Collector Dr. Vipin Itankar emphasized accuracy and timely counting at each table, instructing supervisors to immediately pass data to the Observer. He stressed the importance of uninterrupted counting. A training session for election staff for the Nagpur and Ramtek Lok Sabha General Election was held at Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande hall, where Dr. Itankar addressed the attendees. Election Observers Vipul Bansal, Rajiv Ranjan Sinha, Mahesh Kumar Das, Ramtek Election Returning Officer Tushar Thombare, Resident Deputy Collector Anup Khande, and Deputy District Election Officer Praveen Mahire were present for the training.