This civic election, for the first time, women officials and police constables will be posted at the city’s 8,395 polling booths for verification of women wearing burqas.
This decision of the state election commission is aimed at reducing the chances of bogus voting.
“It has been a long-standing demand for a woman officer to be posted at polling booths as men cannot verify the credentials of burqa-clad women. Also, in ‘sensitive’ polling booths, male officers find difficult to handle the situation because of the religious sentiments,” said a civic official from the election department.
“The women officials will not only help verify the identification of the voters in burqa, but also assist them to ink their fingers before casting their vote,” the official added.
This decision by the state election commission is seen as an additional safeguard measure to that of installing closed-circuit television cameras at ‘sensitive’ booths.
Around 211 polling booths were identified as sensitive during the civic election. The police are still identifying and preparing the list of such booths for this election.
To reduce the chances of bogus voting, the state election commission has also discontinued the use of ration card as identification proof.
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