New Delhi: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra on Saturday announced the dates for the assembly elections to be held in five states of the country i.e. Goa, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
CEC Chandra said conducting elections during the Coronavirus epidemic is very challenging and in view of the spike in Covid-19 infections in the country, efforts have been made to keep all the polling booths completely safe from the dreaded virus.
Meanwhile, CEC Chandra also read a couplet that goes like "Yakeen ho to koi raasta nikalta hai, hawa ki oat bhi lekar chirag jalta hai" as he announced the safety measures to be taken by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for safe conduct of polling.
CEC Chandra announced there will be arrangements for masks, sanitizers and thermal scanners at all polling booths during the elections to be held in the five states.
Along with this, the Chief Election Commissioner said that postal ballots have been used for Covid-19 infected voters, differently-abled voters and voters above 80 years of age.
He said that all election officers and employees will be fully vaccinated against Covid. All polling booths will be fully sanitized. Also, the Chief Secretaries of the states have been asked to rapidly vaccinate the voters.
Keeping in mind the Covid-19 threat, polling time has been extended by one hour and more than 2 lakh 15 thousand polling booths have been set up.
Election Commission announces poll dates for elections in five state
First phase: Feb 10
Second phase: Feb 14
Third phase: Feb 20
Fourth phase: Feb 23
Fifth phase: Feb 27
Sixth phase: March 3
Seventh phase: March 7