All booths will be covered under webcasting on the polling day.
Only 93 of the 1,304 candidates in the fray for the February 20 Punjab Assembly polls are women, and another two are transgenders, according to officials. There are nine candidates aged 25 years while six candidates are above 80 years. The oldest person in the fray is 94 years old and he is contesting from the Lambi Assembly constituency in Sri Muktsar
Sahib, Punjab's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S Karuna Raju said on Thursday. Notably, Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal at 94 is India’s oldest candidate in the fray. There are 2,14,99,804 registered voters in the state of which 1,12,98,081 are men, 1,02,00,996 women, 727 third genders, 1,58,341 persons with disabilities, 1,09,624 service voters, 1,608 NRI voters and 5,09,205 above the age of 80, Raju said.
"There are 24,740 polling stations across 14,684 locations, of which 2,013 polling stations at 1,051 locations are identified as critical," he said. All booths will be covered under webcasting on the polling day, he mentioned. To ensure free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections, Raju said, "972 flying squad teams, 857 static surveillance teams, 479 video surveillance teams, 159 video viewing teams and 119 accounting teams have been deployed across the state and are working round the clock."
After the model code of conduct came into force on January 8, various enforcement teams seized 45.06 lakh litres of liquor worth Rs 25.79 crore, psychotropic substances amounting to Rs 315 crore and confiscated Rs 26.59 crore unaccounted cash, he said giving out details of the raids conducted until February 9. He said that 10,440 complaints have been received on the official mobile app since the model code of conduct came into force. Of these, 7,408 complaints have been resolved in less than 100 minutes, he said, adding, “Our teams have handled these complaints in an average handling time of 49.39 minutes and the accuracy rate is 92 percent.”
"The Election Commission has received 498 complaints of which 448 have been disposed of while 50 are under process," he said. Similarly, 300 complaints have been received on the National Grievances Redressal Portal of which 278 were disposed of while 22 are under process, he added. Similarly, 2,130 complaints have been received through other sources. Of these 2,119 were resolved, while 11 are under process.
With PTI Inputs