Collector, police officials visit strong room

Visakhapatnam: District Election Officer and Collector Dr A. Mallikarjuna on Saturday visited the strong room at the Andhra University Engineering College and inspected the arrangements ahead of the counting of votes here on June 4. He was accompanied by ADC of GVMC joint collector K. Viswanathan and joint commissioner of police K. Fakirappa. The team visited the monitoring room and checked the functioning of all the CCTV cameras set up at different places of the strong room. As part of the ECI guidelines, one representative of every candidate is allowed to monitor the security at the strong rooms round-the-clock. Massive security arrangements were made for the smooth conduct of the counting.

The state armed police personnel are guarding the strong room, while local police are providing security at the outermost layer. The collector has directed returning officers to ensure tight security at in the counting arrangements. He further inquired about the arrangements for setting up barricades, tables in the counting hall, and issuing identity cards to political party agents. He stressed that all arrangements must be completed by the evening of May 31. The first phase of staff randomization for counting duties was conducted Saturday, while the second phase will be held on June 2. Training for the staff assigned to counting duties is scheduled for May 27. Additionally, instructions were given on managing postal ballots.