Apprehending breach of peace during voting for the second phase of elections in Odisha on April 17, the Jagatsinghpur district administration has decided to put the four hyper-sensitive booths in trouble-torn Gobindpur and Dhinkia, which come under the proposed site for the mega steel plant being put up by Korean major Posco, under live webcast surveillance. As the troubled areas are going to polls after a decade’s gap, authorities are intent on ensuring that all goes well and free and fair poll takes place in these hyper-sensitive areas.
The four sensitive polling booths in Gobindpur and Dhinkia, the nerve-centre of the anti-Posco movement come under the Balikuda-Earasama assembly segment. “All the four polling booths of Dhinkia and Gobindapur villages have been earmarked for live web-casting . Web-casters have already been trained a week ahead of the voting to web-cast the entire polling process. Web connectivity has already been put in place in the booths ahead of the polls. A test has also been conducted ”, said Jagatsinghpur collector Satya Kumar Mallick.
“The basic idea is to ensure free and fair election. Web-casters will operate webcams and upload video footage of the polling in the district administration’s official website live. The move is expected to help keep a close vigil on the activities at the polling stations. This is one of the measures being taken up by the adminiistraion to prevent any untoward incident,” Mallick said.
The bastion of the anti-POSCO movement, which has remained out of bounds for government agencies including police for the past several years, is now in the midst of hectic campaigning by candidates in the fray. With people living in the panchayat having expressed their willingness to exercise their franchise, polling would be held in these trouble-torn areas after almost a decade.