April 16, 2009 1:06:43 am
In order to quell the confusion of the voters to find their respective polling booths that reportedly occurred in several places in the past elections,Vadodara district will now have a helpline for the voters for the Lok Sabha election.
According to the Election Commissions guidelines,all districts in India should have an operational helpline from April 23 to April 30 to help the voters.
Not just the helpline,it is for the first time that the EC is printing posters and voter assistant booths in the polling booths to spread awareness. For Vadodara district,we have printed 20,000 posters so that voters can find their respective polling booths from their area, said Vadodara Collector Ashish Nehra.
On an average,the helpline (0265-2420000) gets around 30 calls each day. At present,there are five lines in Vadodara. The Collectorate plans to increase it to 10 lines. Vadodara is the first district to implement these guidelines of the Election Commission. In the 2004 Lok Sabha and 2007 Assembly elections,there were several complaints by the voters on confusion about polling booths or their names in the voters lists,that is why the EC has taken these initiatives, added Nehra.
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Navsari Collector R C Meena said the phone lines in his district will remain operational between April 23 and April 30.
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