South Dinajpur to have 65 all-women polling stations

BALURGHAT: In the upcoming Assembly polls, there will be 65 all-women polling stations in South Dinajpur, said District Magistrate Nikhil Nirmal while addressing a press conference at district administrative building.

"These polling stations will be run by the women polling personnel only. We have started training the personnel. It is our target to conduct the polls hassle-free in the district," Nirmal said.

According to him, the date of issue of notification is March 31. The last date of filing nomination is April 7. Date of scrutiny is April 8. The last date of withdrawal of nomination is April 12. The date of poll is April 26. The counting day is on May 2.

In the district, there are 6 Assembly Constituencies namely Balurghat (General), Kumarganj (General), Harirampur (General), Kushmandi (SC), Gangarampur (SC) and Tapan (ST).

'In South Dinajpur, there are a total 1,755 polling stations. Of them 1,305 are main polling stations and 450 are auxiliary polling stations. 194 polling stations are situated in urban areas and 1561 in rural belts. Apart from this, there are a total 144 sectors in the district," Nirmal said.

Nirmal said there are a total of 12, 74,866 electors, who will cast their votes in the poll. "Of them, there are 6, 52,575 male voters, 6, 22,225 female voters and 66 transgender voters in the district. We have required 8,424 polling personnel while we have a total 9,015 polling personnel in hand," he said.

Nirmal said there are three Distribution Centres/Receiving Centres and three Counting Venues for the district. "Buniadpur College will be the DC/RC and Counting Venues for Kushmandi and Harirampur, Balurghat College for Kumarganj, Balurghat and Tapan while Zilla Parishad Land (Aviyatri Maidan) for Gangarampur. The Counting Venue for Gangarampur will be at Balurghat College," he added.

It may be mentioned that Nirmal and Superintendent of Police Debarshi Dutta conducted a joint route-march here on Sunday evening at Thana area.