The Election Commission has decided to
shift the vote counting venue to Siliguri from Darjeeling citing
non-availability of space in the hill town.
The counting process in earlier
elections used to take place at the North Point school ground in
Singamari, some 4km from town. However, the school had filed a case
against the use of the ground that was decided in its favour leaving the
district administration with no other alternative.
"This time we have decided to conduct
the counting centrally at Siliguri College due to non-availability of
space in the hills. We will require a huge space and there is none
here," informed Darjeeling district magistrate Puneet Yadav, the
returning officer, today in a press conference.
The DM also said the nine registered and
recognised political parties – the INC, BJP, NCP and BSP (national),
AITC, CPM, CPI, FB and RSP (state) have been intimated about the
decision.
"We have spoken to all stakeholders and they agreed to the change in venue," claimed Yadav.
Nonetheless, parties of the hills have expressed reservations over the move to shift the counting venue to the plains.
"The counting should be conducted in
Darjeeling as it is the district headquarters. We will write to the
Election Commission in this regard," said Gorkha Janmukti Morcha general
secretary Roshan Giri.
Echoing similar sentiments, the All
India Gorkha League said the venue was being changed on the directive of
the state government.
"The district administration is only
following what the state government has asked it to do. An alternative
venue can always be found in the hills. We resent the shifting of the
counting venue to the plains," said AIGL general secretary Pratap Khati.
Likewise, Communist Party of
Revolutionary Marxist spokesperson Govind Chhetri said, "It is a
conspiracy and is politically motivated. We will not accept it and write
to the election committee.”
The election in West Bengal will be
conducted in five phases and Darjeeling district will go to the polls on
April 17. The poll notification will be issued on March 19 and
candidates can file their nomination papers from that day onwards up to
March 26. The scrutiny process will be conducted on March 27, while
those who wish to withdraw their candidature can do so till March 29.
The counting will take place on May 16.
The Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trial (VVPAT) will also be used in some pollicng booths for the first time.
"The VVPAT will enable us to verify
voters’ claims that their votes have been wrongly registered. We will
have documents at our disposal to determine the veracity and take
necessary steps accordingly," said Yadav.
There are seven assembly constituencies
from Darjeeling, including the three sub-divisions of Darjeeling,
Kalimpong and Kurseong and three from the plains, namely Siliguri,
Matigara-Naxalbari and Phansidewa. Chopra, which falls under Jalpaiguri,
has been included under Darjeeling this time.
As many as 12,21,571 voters from
Darjeeling district and 1,93,597 from Chopra will exercise their
franchise at more than 1,829 polling booths.
To ensure peaceful voting, the district
administration has deployed nine companies of the CRPF in the hills and
also enforced the prohibitory 144 section of the Cr. PC.
"We are also in talk with our
counterparts in Sikkim, Jalpaiguri and also Nepal and Bhutan on imposing
'nakabandi' along the borders during the polls," said Darjeeling SP
Akhilesh Chaturvedi, adding more than 600 pending warrants cases are
being looked into ahead of the polls.(EOIC)