Chief Electoral Officer reviews preparedness for conducting Covid safe by-polls in Odisha

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: Chief Electoral Officer, Odisha Sushil Kumar Lohani today reviewed the preparedness for conducting Covid safe election with Collectors of Jagasinghpur and Balasore district.  In view of more number of polling booths this time, the requirement of number of polling personnel has increased and 2768 and 2984 of polling personnel has been appointed for Balasore and Tirtol Assembly constituencies respectively including reserves. This time two additional personnel including one ASHA worker are being engaged outside the booths to conduct thermal scanning of each voter, dispensing sanitizer and distributing gloves to voters and also for maintaining queue to ensure social distancing. CEO, Odisha instructed the collectors to ensure sanitisation of polling stations prior to poll to ensure clean and hygienic environment for the polling staff as well as for voters. As per ECI guidelines special Covid kits consisting of mask, sanitizer and PPE kits, face shield and gloves are being provided to each polling personnel for their safety during the poll duty. Accordingly 875 IR thermometers, 4314 PPE kits, 6.5 lakhs gloves,7830 face shields as well as sufficient quantity of hand sanitizer, Sodium hypochlorite solutions, bleaching powders, soaps, paper napkins  are being supplied for election purposes. Collectors have also been asked to engage sufficient numbers of vehicles for deployment during poll process keeping in mind the social distancing norms for safe travel of polling personnel. Accordingly, 855 vehicles of different categories are being deployed for both the elections. District collectors have been specifically asked to take care of all the polling personnel deployed on election duty to ensure their safety and well-being during Covid period.