Jamshedpur Establishes 24/7 Control Room to Combat Election Violations Ahead of Ghatshila Bypoll

Jamshedpur: Aiming to curb illegal activities during campaigning for the Ghatshila bypoll, the district administration has set up a control room, which will function 24 hours a day.Opened at Sakchi police station premises, the control room has three landline numbers (0657-2440111, 0657-2221717, 0657-2221718). People, including voters of the Ghatshila assembly constituency, can call these numbers to lodge complaints or alert officials upon noticing violations of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).Regardless of any complaint pertaining to the violation of the MCC, people can call the number or use the election commission’s c-vigil app, toll-free number 1950, or the https://voters.eci.gov.in website for complaints, suggestions, and information, district electoral officer (DEO) Karn Satyarthi said.Notably, with freebies worth Rs 2.41 lakh being seized from the check-post on Saturday, the district administration has recovered items worth Rs 2.93 crore so far since the MCC came into effect. Officials have informed that flying squad teams and static surveillance teams, jointly with excise officials, police, and expenditure panel officials, are conducting round-the-clock checks of vehicles at the inter-state and inter-district check-posts.Officials have urged people to call the control room numbers or lodge complaints/share information on the digital platform to help curb violations of the poll code norms.Meanwhile, the commissioning process of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines was held on Sunday at the Jamshedpur Co-operative College (JCC) building. The commissioning exercise and mock poll were conducted in presence of the DEO.The commissioning involved ballot paper, candidate setting, and symbol loading, besides address tagging and sealing of the machines with pink paper, which was done booth-wise as per the guidelines of the election commission. The entire process was conducted in presence of the candidates and their representatives.Following the commissioning process, 1,000 votes were polled in each of the 5 percent random voting machines, and result printouts were matched with the VVPATs accurately. Notably, 390 ballot units (BUs), 390 control units (CUs), and 420 VVPATs have been allotted for the 300 polling centres in the Ghatshila assembly constituency.The commissioning of the voting machines and the VVPATs was done after the second randomisation of the voting machines, which was conducted before the candidates earlier on October 30. After the commissioning exercise was over, all the machines were stored in the strong room amid tight security arrangements. The machines will be transported to the respective polling booths for voting on the polling day in presence of the candidates or their representatives, officials said.Notably, polling will be held on November 11, and results will be declared on November 14.