TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Stage is finally set for filing of nomination papers, beginning from Wednesday, for the South Goa Lok Sabha seat, which has a total electorate of 5,35,814, with women outnumbering men by around 262 votes.
As usual, counting of votes will take place at the Damodar College-Kare Law College complex since the New Collectorate building was found to be inadequate for the purpose.
Returning Officer for South Goa seat Mihir Vardhan told the media that nomination papers will be accepted in his office on the ground floor of the New Collectorate building from Wednesday at 11 am. He said candidates will have to enter the Collectorate from the northern gate of the complex with only three vehicles.
Giving details of the election process, Vardhan said South Goa will have 795 polling stations manned by around 6,000 polling staff, besides police personnel.
As per the Election Commission of India guidelines, the district election office has set up 15 teams for monitoring of expenditure, 10 video surveillance teams, eight video viewing teams, 11 accounting teams, 12 teams of flying squad, seven excise teams and a nine-member team of election expenditure and monitoring cell headed by senior officer Levinson Martins.
Vardhan said the authorities have constituted two border patrolling squad which will be deployed at Polem and Mollem check posts to check inter-state vehicles transporting liquor and cash into the state. Besides, the Konkan Railway Corporation, South Western railway and the Airports Authority have been asked to maintain vigil on suspicious baggage carried by passengers.
CCTV cameras at two border check posts will be used to track vehicles entering or leaving the state.
Asked why authorities have only constituted 12 flying squads when the constituency is made up of 20 Assembly segments, Vardhan said additional squads will be put in place depending on requirements.
