548 Ganjam booths hyper-sensitive

BERHAMPUR: The Ganjam district administration has identified 548 of the total 2,856 booths, including 23 auxiliary ones, as hyper-sensitive.
"Such booths are in Maoist-affected and politically-sensitive areas. Polling stations, where a candidate polled over 75% votes in 2009 elections, have also been categorized as hyper-sensitive," said collector (Ganjam) Prem Chandra Chaudhary.
Among these, 461 polling stations are politically-sensitive while seven witnessed violence in last elections. Twenty booths in Sorada assembly constituency are Maoist-hit. Similarly, candidates in 265 and 29 booths polled 75% and 80% votes respectively, he added. The district has two Lok Sabha constituencies and 13 assembly segments.
According to sources, micro-observers would be appointed at these booths on polling days. Cameras would be installed and facilities put in place for webcasting to prevent untoward incidents.
Police would intensify patrolling at these places, three days ahead of polling, to ensure that the elections are held peacefully. "Central forces will be deployed at places with hyper-sensitive booths," said SP (Ganjam) Ashish Kumar Singh.
The collector said the administration had requested the Election Commission to set up 59 auxiliary booths across the district, but got approval for only 23. "Fifteen such booths are in Berhampur and eight in Gopalpur assembly segments," he said. Auxiliary booths are set up in places where the number of voters exceeds 1,500.