In a first, toiletries provided to polling staff in Panchmahal

VADODARA: The polling parties for the Panchmahal Lok Sabha seat were quite amused and even pleasantly surprised when they found this packet along with the polling material handed over to them on Monday. The packet included toiletries that they could use on the polling day on Tuesday.
The district administration had included a packet that contained toothbrushes, shampoo and hair oil sachets, combs and mosquito repellents for each of the polling official deployed at a booth.It was for the first time that such an initiative was taken for the polling officials.
Said Panchmahal district collector and district election officer Udit Agarwal, “The polling parties reach the polling stations a day prior to the elections and stay there. They sleep there and have to get ready at the polling stations itself before the voting begins. We thought this gesture would help them.” The polling parties are provided with mattresses and dinner at the polling station itself.
Agarwal said that the distribution would also ensure that the polling officials did not have to seek any gratification from the local residents on this front. “Often they have to rely on locals for such needs, but this does away with the possibility,” he added.
Girish Patel, a polling official on duty at Godhra, said that he had worked in three elections so far. “But this is the first time that something like this has happened. While we come prepared to sleep and get ready in the morning, someone might just forget carrying something,” he said.
Another polling official Neha Patel said that it was for the first time that she was exercising election duties. “I did not know that even such small needs would be taken care of,” she said.