Ahead of Punjab polls CEO S Karuna Raju releases important details

Chandigarh, February 19: Punjab is all geared up for assembly elections scheduled on Sunday, informed Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju during a press conference on Saturday. Giving details, the poll officer said that preparations for voting have been completed and 24,740 polling stations have been set up in Punjab. "A total of 24,740 polling stations across14,684 locations have been set up. 64 observers and 3 senior observers have been deployed to complete the voting process," he said, adding, due to the high number of candidates in 6 polling booths, 2-2 polling units have been set up. The poll officer further informed that there would be 1196 Model Polling Stations, 196 women managed polling stations and 70 PwD managed polling stations, adding that webcasting of all the polling stations is being done.  A total of 791 roadblocks have been set up, according to Raju. Also Read | Punjab Elections 2022: Cong expels Satkar Kaur ahead of polls He further added that 1,300 candidates are in the fray, out of which 1209 are men, 93 are women and 2 are transgender. Of the total candidates in the fray, as many as 315 contesting candidates are with Criminal Antecedents.  The electoral officer said that valuable worth around Rs.500 crore had been confiscated in Punjab since the introduction of the model code of conduct for assembly elections 2022. In addition, about 22,827 complaints have been received. Toll-free numbers have also been issued. A huge number of security personnel have been deployed to conduct the polls in a peaceful manner. Apart from Punjab Police, CISF personnel have also been deployed, informed the state electoral officer Karuna Raju. Besides this, every polling station will have Covid-19 safety material like gloves, sanitiser, soap and mask, while dustbin and colour bags will be placed for disposal of Covid waste material. CEO Raju also urged electors coming at polling stations to adhere to Covid protocols including wearing masks and maintaining social distance. On Sunday, 117 assembly constituencies spread across 23 districts will be voting, according to the election commission. The voting will start at 7 am and will end at 6 pm. Over 2.14 crore voters will exercise their franchise to elect 117 new members to the 16th Punjab Legislative Assembly in a multi-cornered contest. Earlier, the Election Commission had announced the voting on February 14, however, postpones it to February 20 in the wake of Guru Ravidas Jayanti. Also Read | Punjab Elections 2022: Kejriwal rubbishes 'Khalistani' allegations, slams rivals -PTC News