Odisha: Polling personnel trek 12km in forest route to reach Tumudibandha

PHULBANI/BERHAMPUR: In the backdrop of killing of a woman polling personnel by Maoists in Phiringia area under

Kandhamal district

on Wednesday, two polling parties comprising 14 personnel trekked at least 12km in dense forest with polling materials to reach Tumudibandha, a block headquarters town in the district, early on Friday morning.

The polling parties returned from Sirla, a Maoist affected area, under Baliguda assembly constituency. It has two polling booths (137 and 138) with a voter population of 2353 under Baliguda assembly constituency. But around 1800 people have exercised their franchise. Around 150 security personnel had been deployed in the area to provide security to the polling personnel and voters.

The polling process was completed at around 7.45 pm. The voting process should have ended at 4 pm, but the time got extended as more than two hundred people were standing in the queues by 3.45pm. The polling party started their journey at around 9pm in the forest route.

Apprehending Maoist ambush, the security personnel prepared a route chart to avoid the existing daily route connecting main road. “According to the plan, security personnel sent empty bus in the existing route normally used by everybody coming to the village and took polling staff in a different jungle route for safety purpose,” said Jaydev Das, block development officer of Tumudibandha block.

He said the polling parties walked down the hilly area and crossed nullahs during their night journey. “They reached the block headquarters at Tumudibandh at around 1.30 am safely. They took rest there before boarding bus at around 8 am for Baliguda amid security,” he added.

Golak Bihari Samantsingh Kar, presiding officer of booth 137, said the CRPF personnel asked them to go with the election materials soon after completion of polling. “With the instruction of the district authorities, we followed the CRPF jawans in the jungle. The polling personnel got panicked while travelling in in dark night in the forest. According to the instructions of security personnel, we switched off our mobile phones and did not utter any word,” he added.

Samarendra Panigrahy, a polling officer, said, “As the security forces followed the standard operating procedure (SOP), they advised us to sit down to avoid notice of Maoists in some places.”

Bikash Behera, another polling staff, said, “We heaved a sigh of relief after reaching Tumudibandh and felt like getting a new life.”

A senior police officer said they did not want to take any risk by using the daily route. “We have witnessed two explosions, killing of polling personnel Sajukta Digal and torching of three polling party vehicles in Gochhapada and Phiringia area on the eve of the election. So we were worried over the polling party’s security and safe return,” he added.

In a similar incident, as many as 11 polling personnel from Barahala and its nearby booths walked around 20 km in the night and reached Balandapada outpost amid heavy security. Later they were taken from Balandapada to Phulbani in vehicles. Maoists had gunned down police staff Digal at Barahala on Wednesday.

The Maoists had blocked the road connecting Balandapada by felling trees.Securitymen took the polling staff in a different route and reached Balandapada outpost at dawn. They trekked hilly terrains cautiously as this area is the stronghold of Maoists.

The polling percentage of Kandhamal

Lok Sabha

constituency is 72.88, second in

voter turnout

rate among five Lok Sabha seats which went for polls on April 18. Maoists could not deter the spirit of the people to come out and vote in different areas.

In the first phase of polls held on April 11, polling personnel had trekked around 20 km and 15 km in the dense jungle in Malkanagiri and

Nuapada

districts respectively to reach their district headquarters towns after completion of polling.