Tripura gearing up to hold election in time

Agartala, Dec 16: The election commission has been in the process of assessing the administrative and security requirements for ensuing assembly poll in Tripura scheduled in February next year, said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikant here today.

He said the state would seek more central paramilitary forces to ensure free, fair and transparent elections but it would be finalised only after proper assessment closer to the election.
He stated that in 2013 assembly elections, EC had deployed as many as 260 companies of additional central police forces apart from 11 battalion of Tripura State Rifles (TSR) but this time it might be little more.
“This time, we will demand more additional forces to guard each polling booth, counting halls and strong rooms in effective manner”, he said adding that in order to ensure entire poll process transparent, there will be three Static Surveillance Teams (SST) and Flying Squads for each assembly segments. Besides, there will be arrangement for web casting of polling process as it had been done in other states like Manipur, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.
The CEO said the state has already received 4080 VVPATs and adequate number of EVMs to conduct the elections scheduled for early next year. This time, the state election machinery will use various IT applications like Samadhan and Subidha as per instruction of the EC, he said.
He mentioned that preparation for upcoming assembly election in Tripura is on full swing considering holding the election on time. About 22000 polling personnel have been undergoing training and as many as 4700 EVMs were already put in place to hold the election. UNI