Odisha by-election Polling personnel will carry COVID kit

    Bhubaneswar, Oct 16 (PTI) Apart from EVMs, indelible
ink and other election-related materials, the polling
personnel this time will also carry COVID kit for conducting
by-elections in two assembly segments of Odisha on November 3.
    This was decided at the meeting of the Chief Electoral
Officer (CEO), S K Lohani with the district magistrate-cum
collector of Balasore and Jagatsinghpur districts on Thursday,
an official said.
    The COVID kit consists of masks, sanitizer, face
shield, PPEs and hand gloves.
    "The CEO has instructed the collectors to ensure
sanitisation of polling stations prior to the poll to ensure
clean and hygienic environment for the polling staff as well
as for voters," the official said, adding that the special
COVID kits will be provided to each polling personnel as per
the guidelines of the Election Commission of India.
    Accordingly, 675 IR thermometers, 4,313 PPE kits, 6.5
lakh gloves, 7,830 face shields as well as sufficient quantity
of hand sanitizer, sodium hypochlorite solution, bleaching
powder, soaps, paper napkins and others are being supplied for
election purpose, he said.
    The collectors have also been asked to engage
sufficient numbers of vehicles for deployment during the poll
process keeping in mind the social distancing norms for safe
travel of polling personnel.
    "District collectors have been specially asked to take
care of all the polling personnel deployed on election duty to
ensure their safety and wellbeing during the COVID pandemic,"
CEO S K Lohani said.
    This time two additional personnel including one ASHA
worker are being engaged outside each booth to conduct thermal
scanning of each voter, dispensing sanitizer and distributing
gloves to voters and also for maintaining a queue to ensure
social distancing.
    As per the ECI guideline, any person deployed in the
election process has to always wear a face mask. All the
entries to halls/rooms/premises used for election purpose will
have thermal scanning, sanitizer, soap and water for cleaning.
    The premises used for election purposes will be
regularly sanitised in addition; all the election related
activities would be carried out in large halls to ensure
social distancing. ECI has also advised that large
halls/spaces have to be identified for distribution and
collection of election materials, the official said.
    The by-polls have been necessitated following the
demise of sitting BJP MLA of Balasore Sadar Madan Mohan Dutta
and BJD legislator from Tirtol, Bishun Charan Das. PTI AAM
RG RG

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)