Bengaluru: Electoral authorities in Karnataka are pulling out all stops to ensure maximum coverage in the upcoming Karnataka assembly elections. The Election Commission has roped in cricketer Rahul Dravid to create awareness about the elections. “Rahul Dravid will be the state election icon,” Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said. A “Karnataka Election Anthem” is also being written by film and music director Yograj Bhat which is due to be released in a week.
The authorities are also taking the help of disabled government employees polling staff and are creating all-women polling stations to bring more voters to participate in the May 12 assembly elections in Karnataka.
“Some of the persons with disabilities — employees of the government, will be participating in certain selected polling station as polling staff for the first time… We are encouraging them. 450 all women polling stations will be set up. Efforts are on for four in urban constituencies and one in rural constituencies,” Kumar said.
For persons with disability, complete mapping of voters will be done and it will be ensured that required facilities including wheelchair booking are taken care of.
The EC will also be using GPS based vehicle to track flying squads. There will be a GIS-enabled complete database of polling station and digital maps and Digital Atlas of all polling station areas and assembly constituencies. Some special polling stations with an ethnic look in Primitive Tribal Areas will also be established on a pilot basis.
Transfer facilitation and certification system for ensuring code of conduct on transfer and posting of officers involved in elections, SMS based Polling Station Access, App-Based Polling Station Access and navigation, Queue status facility on poll day for a few polling stations with higher voter population are among the other initiatives are being planned by the EC.
The Karnataka elections will be held in a single phase poll for the 224-member Assembly on May 12 and the counting of votes will be taken up on May 15.
Bureau Report
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